NMAN 


IN  INDUSTR 


ARTHUR 


i  !  :; 


91 


LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 

GERALD   HOWLAND 


THE   IRON   MAN 
IN  INDUSTRY 


AN  OUTLINE 
OF  THE  SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE 

OF 

AUTOMATIC  MACHINERY 


BY 

ARTHUR  POUND 


BOSTON 
THE  ATLANTIC  MONTHLY  PRESS 


Copyright  1922,  by 
THE  ATLANTIC  MONTHLY  PRESS,  Inc. 


Printed  in  United  States  of  America 


This  book  is  inscribed  to  the  memory  of 

WILLIAM  A.  PATERSON 
1838  —  1921 

In  his  youth  a  master  craftsman  at  the 
forge,  and  for  more  than  half  a  century 
an  employer  who  kept  faith  with  his 
men,  his  market,  and  his  community. 


PREFACE 

IT  has  been  my  luck,  for  twenty  years,  to  work  in  fac- 
tory towns  at  a  trade  which  kept  both  mind  and 
office  open  to  all  comers.  I  have  been  employer  and  em- 
ployed, reporter,  editor,  and  printer,  proprietor,  part- 
ner and  shareholder  of  and  in  various  enterprises,  most 
of  them  concerned  with  spreading  news  and  views. 
With  enough  experience  of  business,  if  assimilated  in 
the  usual  way,  to  have  made  me  a  business  man,  I 
remain  a  newspaper  man.  Business  men  must  be 
specialists;  newspaper  men  ought  to  be  generalists. 

Libraries  are  full  of  books  on  industrial  problems, 
which  I  have  not  had  time  to  read;  but  there  is  no 
type  of  man  in  industry  that  I  have  not  met  and 
heard  through  to  the  end  of  his  string.  Such  slight 
researches  as  I  have  made,  however,  indicate  that 
the  favored  styles  in  books  on  industry  are  two:  the 
coldly  analytical  and  the  hotly  polemical.  The  re- 
sults prove  that,  in  books,  life  may  be  analyzed  into 
lifelessness  and  beaten  to  death  with  verbal  lashes, 
while  outside  their  covers  life  and  work  push  on  re- 
gardless. So  it  seemed  worth  while  to  attempt  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  industrial  problem  which  should  be 
neither  hot  rhetoric  nor  cold  analysis,  but  rather  a 
calm  synthesis,  —  calm  yet  not  altogether  devoid  of 
warmth,  —  and  so  far  new  as  to  take  into  account 
impacts  of  new  tools  and  methods  upon  human  na- 
ture and  the  social  order. 

Large  numbers  of  persons,  most  of  them  unwit- 
tingly, have  assisted  me  in  this  work  through  the 


viii  PREFACE 

conversations  of  many  talkative  years.  I  am  most 
grateful,  however,  to  Mr.  Ernest  F.  Lloyd,  of  Ann 
Arbor,  Michigan,  a  former  manufacturer  of  gas-ma- 
chinery and  operator  of  gas  companies,  who,  after  a 
busy  life,  retired  to  the  academic  atmosphere  of  a 
college  town,  to  reflect  upon  his  experience.  Entering 
the  University  as  a  special  student  in  economics  when 
past  middle  age,  he  reversed,  with  most  interesting 
results,  the  educational  process.  His  forthcoming  book 
on  "The  Wages  System"  is  the  clearest  analyis  yet 
made  of  our  industrial  system  as  it  operates;  and  I 
joyfully  advertise  his  priority  of  thought  in  many 
conclusions  reached  in  this  volume.  Those  chapters 
which  stress  the  economic  aspect  are,  in  effect,  the 
fruits  of  joint  authorship;  and  throughout  I  have 
had  the  benefit  of  his  accurate  knowledge  of  in- 
dustry and  his  firm  grip  on  economic  theory.  With- 
out his  aid  this  book  scarcely  could  have  been  written, 
though  I  make  haste  to  absolve  him  from  responsibil- 
ity of  agreement  in  all  its  conclusions,  since  we  have 
our  individual  points  of  view  on  many  of  the  issues. 

My  thanks  are  likewise  due  to  Dr.  C.  B.  Burr, 
author  of  "Practical  Psychology  and  Psychiatry,"  for 
expert  advice  and  steady  encouragement;  to  Dr.  G. 
K.  Pratt  of  the  Massachusetts  Society  for  Mental 
Hygiene,  and  to  Dr.  Arnold  L.  Jacoby,  psychiatrist 
of  the  Municipal  Courts  of  Detroit,  for  assistance 
in  endeavoring  to  untangle  the  mental  threads  of  the 
complex. 

ARTHUR  POUND. 


CONTENTS 

Page 

INTRODUCTION 

I    FROM  LAND  TO  MILL  .     .     .     .     .     .         i  » 

II    THE- LEVELING  OF  WAGES     .     .     .     .       18— 

III  MIND  AND  MACHINE        ..    36  - 

IV  THE  IRON  DUKES ,     .       62  - 

V  INDUSTRY  AND  *»«•  STATE     .     .     .  .  87  *»  U  3 

VI  THE  CHANGING  CORPORATION    .     .  .  1 14  •//  5^-  1 5 ) 

VII  THE  JOB  AND  SOCIETY 141—  '  $* 

VIII  WAR  AND  WORK    ...     .     .     .  .  153—    *el 

IX  Sits,  IRON  MAN'S  LEGACY     .     ,     .  .  170  -  / 

X  EDUCATION  FOR  LEISURE      ;     .     .  .  i9^*'> 

XI  GOD  AND  MAN       .      .....  .\2i6-ltJ 


INTRODUCTION 

IN  the  pastoral  age,  affirms  the  poet  Tagore,  man 
explored  space,  and  exploited  it  through  the  media 
of  his  nibbling  beasts.  Through  agriculture  he  ex- 
plored time,  laboriously  binding  the  seasons  to  his 
purposes.  There  Eastern  civilization  remains  to-day, 
having  added,  of  its  own  free  will,  only  the  handi- 
crafts, though  slave  power  permitted  such  enormous 
extension  of  hand-processes  that  many  of  its  public 
works  remain  notable  for  size  as  well  as  detail.  But 
the  Western  peoples,  more  ambitious  and  less  contem- 
plative, crept  out  of  agriculture  and  the  handicrafts 
by  harnessing  natural  forces,  and  building  machines 
that  multiplied  man-power.  They  wedded  science  to 
toil,  and  system  to  acquisitiveness.  They  educated 
other  peoples,  as  well  as  themselves,  in  wants ;  organ- 
ized international  exchanges  of  goods  and  services; 
policed  the  high  seas ;  and  swept  on  to  the  political 
hegemony  of  the  planet. 

As  the  beast  was  the  essential  of  pastoral  life,  and 
the  tool  the  essential  of  agricultural  life,  so  the  ma- 
chine is  the  essential  of  the  industrial  civilization  in 
which  we  dwell.  We  tend  our  flocks  of  machines  as 
zealously  as  Abraham's  servants  tended  his  herds,  and 
for  the  same  reason  —  because  they  are  the  means  of 
existence.  We  ply  our  reapers  to  the  same  end  that 
Cain  plied  his  sickle.  Our  cranes,  lathes,  and  steam- 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

shovels  are  to  us  precisely  what  the  lever  was  to  the 
builder,  the  chisel  to  the  shaper  of  stone  and  metal, 
and  the  spade  to  the  villein,  in  the  centuries  between 
Solomon  and  Napoleon  —  means  of  reducing  matter 
to  the  use  and  comfort  of  man. 

Machine-mounted,  we  tilt  furiously  at  time  and 
space.  A  chase  foredoomed  to  failure,  say  the  phi- 
losophers. So  be  it;  yet,  except  at  rare  intervals,  we 
heed  these  croakers  little,  each  generation  confident, 
almost  to  the  grave,  that  through  speed  and  quantity 
man  shall  yet  break  through  to  the  millennium.  But 
no  matter  how  swiftly  our  inventors  improve  our 
steel  steed,  somehow  we  never  succeed  in  lessening 
perceptibly  the  distance  to  that  far  horizon. 

At  times,  in  spite  of  warning  signals,  we  come  crop- 
pers that  invite  despair, — as  in  1914.  In  such  situa- 
tions we  gaze  panic-stricken  upon  the  wreckage  of 
humanity  and  the  wastage  of  its  heritage  through  all 
the  ages.  But  we  are  of  breeds  not  easily  cast  down, 
breeds  avid  of  power  and  conscious  of  high  destinies. 
So,  after  agreeing  that  we  must  have  come  the  wrong 
road,  we  reconnoitre  the  ground,  only  to  develop  the 
uncomfortable  truth  that  we  cannot  go  back.  There 
is  too  much  debris,  of  our  own  making,  behind  us,  to 
permit  retreat.  Scouts,  self-appointed  but  desperately 
in  earnest,  bring  in  word  of  glimpses  of  fair  and  level 
roads  to  right  or  left  —  the  Radicals  saying  left,  and 
the  Conservatives  right;  but  most  of  us  conclude 
that  the  intervening  jungle  presents  insuperable 
obstacles  to  any  drastic  change  in  civilization's  right 
of  way. 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

Above  the  turmoil,  the  drivers  and  mechanicians 
lift  voices  to  command  or  implore.  "A  few  light  re- 
pairs," they  say,  "and  we  will  soon  have  the  old  ma- 
chine under  way  again,  practically  as  good  as  new, 
providing  labor  takes  hold  with  a  will.  Lay  to,  men!" 
But  labor  mutters  and  draws  back. 

Others  insist  that  the  thing  to  do  is  to  improve  the 
road  —  from  this  point,  on  to  infinity.  Still  others 
declare  that  it  is  time  to  lighten  cargo,  to  throw  over- 
board age-honored  and  hard-won  possessions,  tradi- 
tions, customs,  conventions,  laws  —  the  baggage  of 
society. 

In  all  this  agitated  company  there  remain  but  few 
who,  bearing  no  grudges  and  offering  no  panaceas, 
seek  the  outskirts  of  the  milling  throng.  There,  by  ones 
and  twos,  ignoring  importunities  to  get  busy,  they 
reflect  upon  the  complex  "why"  of  the  catastrophe; 
and  consider  what  more  is  likely  to  happen  if  the 
same  pilots  push  the  same  machine  ahead,  at  the  old, 
heart-breaking  pace,  heedless  of  the  degenerating 
effect  of  jolt  and  friction  upon  its  fine-wrought  parts 
and  upon  the  even  more  delicate  minds  and  bodies, 
faiths  and  loyalties,  of  their  myriad  fellow  passengers. 
And  what  of  those  frail  but  indispensable  fibres 
of  human  confidence  and  sympathy,  which  bind  in- 
dividuals into  groups,  inducing  a  cohesion  whereby 
those  groups  may  realize  something  of  their  com- 
mon yearnings  in  institutions  —  in  homes,  schools, 
churches,  associations,  corporations,  unions,  societies, 
and  states. 

In  short,  civilization  has  had  a  desperate  mauling. 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

Certain  forces  and  mechanisms,  brought  into  the 
House  of  Life  as  servants,  have  usurped  undue  au- 
thority, on  the  flashy  but  insufficient  warrant  of  the 
wealth  they  produce.  It  is  time  to  show  them  their 
places  and  keep  them  there. 


THE     IRON     MAN 
IN    INDUSTRY 


FIRST,  the  man  and  the  beast;  then,  the  man  and 
the  hand-tool ;  now,  the  man  and  the  machine- 
tool! 

This  is  the  century  of  the  automatic  machine.  The 
social  problem  is  to  accommodate  the  use  of  auto- 
matic machinery  to  the  well-being  of  the  masses;  our 
political  problem  is  to  avert  class  and  state  wars 
growing  out  of  quarrels  over  the  profits,  powers,  and 
privileges  accruing  through  the  production  and  mar- 
keting of  goods.  Much  of  our  modern  heart-searching, 
if  intelligently  directed,  leads  down  to  the  Iron  Man 
at  the  base  of  the  industrial  structure.  He  claims  the 
twentieth  century  as  his;  the  social  and  economic 
forces  that  he  releases  are  those  most  likely  to  carry 
on  into  the  future  the  reality  of  our  day. 

' '  M  achine-tools  may  be  classified  in  two  main  groups : 
those  which  lengthen  and  strengthen  the  arm  of 
the  worker  without  displacing  his  will  as  the  vital 
function  of  work,  and  those  whose  principal  func- 
tion is  to  supplant  the  worker,  or  to  reduce  his 
function  to  a  minimum."  (Lloyd) 


2  THE    IRON    MAN 

An  example  of  the  first  class  is  the  jib  crane.  The 
operator  must  direct  the  machine;  his  mind  must 
work  with  his  muscle  precisely  as  his  forbears  had  to 
apply  both  mind  and  muscle  to  their  simple  levers. 

In  the  second  class,  the  ability  to  do  the  work  is  a 
primary  function  of  the  machine  itself,  and  inherent 
in  the  mechanism.  Designed  to  accomplish  its  task 
independent  of  human  direction,  the  attendant  need 
not  know  the  necessary  steps  that  the  machine  takes 
in  doing  the  work.  He  need  not  know  how  to  repair 
it  in  case  of  a  jam :  that  is  another  man's  job.  All  the 
attendant  is  required  to  do  is  to  feed  the  machine  with 
material  and  relieve  it  of  produce.  Even  starting  and 
stopping  the  machine  may  be  done  by  another,  so 
minutely  is  the  work-function  divided. 

Of  course,  there  are  varying  degrees  of  complete- 
ness in  the  application  of  the  self-functioning  prin- 
ciple to  machinery.  Some  machines  are  nearly  auto- 
matic. The  pneumatic  riveter,  for  instance,  requires 
skill  for  its  operation,  but  the  technique  is  more  easily 
attained  than  that  of  the  hand-riveter.  However,  the 
trend  toward  complete  automatization  is  strong  and 
steady  throughout  industry. 

I  have  witnessed,  recently,  the  premier  of  a  com- 
pletely automatic  machine  in  a  branch  of  production 
which,  fifteen  years  ago,  was  prosecuted  almost  en- 
tirely by  hand.  This  automatic  cost  upwards  of 
$30,000  to  install,  supplanting  a  semi-automatic  ma- 
chine, which  called  for  the  exercise  of  two  distinct 
acts  of  judgment  on  the  part  of  its  attendant.  Fre- 
quent bungling  of  these  two  operations  spoiled  so 


THE    IRON     MAN  3 

much  material  that  the  new  machine  is  considered  a 
marked  advance.  The  attendant  now  is  practically 
without  other  responsibility  than  that  of  inserting  the 
material  and  withdrawing  the  product. 

This  illustrates  the  steady  progress  toward  auto- 
matization, a  progress  dictated  by  economic  consider- 
ations of  the  first  magnitude,  and  certain  to  continue 
until  the  highest  possible  application  of  the  automatic 
principle  has  been  reached.  The  flour  mills  of  Min- 
neapolis and  Kansas  City  are  probably  our  best 
examples  of  automatic  production,  the  wheat  being 
milled,  measured,  and  packed  for  shipment  by  ma- 
chinery so  comprehensive  that  very  few  operatives 
are  required ;  and  as  a  result,  the  milling  industry  has 
no  bothersome  labor  problem. 

The  principle  of  automatic  functioning  in  machin- 
ery is  almost  as  old  as  machinery  itself;  but  its  com- 
mon application  is  comparatively  recent  —  so  recent 
that  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  may  be 
considered  a  turning-point.  As  a  determining  factor 
in  modern  industry,  it  dates  from  the  late  eighties, 
when  the  moulding  machine  first  appeared  in  Amer- 
ican foundries.  In  this  machine  the  automatic  prin- 
ciple, which  hitherto  had  been  more  or  less  casually 
applied,  found  an  abiding-place.  Its  potency  seems 
not  to  have  been  generally  recognized ;  but  employers 
found  in  it  an  aid  to  strike-breaking.  With  its  assist- 
ance, an  unskilled  laborer,  after  short  training,  on 
certain  kinds  of  work  could  equal  the  best  efforts  of 
the  old-time  moulder.  The  new  device  threw  down  the 
gage  of  battle  to  organized  labor  in  one  of  its  most 


4  THE     IRON     MAN 

completely  organized  fields.  No  one  saw  in  it  the 
herald  of  an  industrial  revolution,  or  discerned  in  its 
operations  the  beginnings  of  a  new  evolutionary  force 
in  social  relations.  Through  the  nineties  the  mould- 
ing machine  fought  its  way  against  the  conservatism 
of  employers  and  the  opposition  of  union  labor.  By 
1900,  it  had  reached  a  highly  improved  form,  capable 
of  making  an  enlarged  variety  of  articles  of  intricate 
and  complex  patterns. 

This  practical  testimony  to  the  validity  of  the 
automatic  principle  in  production  encouraged  its 
application  to  complementary  trades.  Inventive 
America  quickly  produced  the  turret  lathe,  the  screw 
machine,  the  pneumatic  hammer,  the  grinding  ma- 
chine, and  scores  of  other  devices  designed  to  multiply 
man-power  and  reduce  the  individual  operative's 
responsibility  for  the  quality  of  the  finished  product. 
As  skill  became  less  and  less  essential,  the  apprentice- 
ship system  died  a  natural  death.  Factories  were 
opened  to  unskilled  workers.  At  the  same  time,  the 
quantity  of  output  per  worker  increased,  and  its 
quality  improved.  The  Iron  Man,  having  no  nerves, 
and  being  created  for  a  single  purpose,  did  "repeat" 
work  better  than  trained  men.  Production  increased 
rapidly;  the  power  of  man  to  satisfy  his  expanding 
wants  leaped  ahead.  This  increase  marked  one  of 
those  abrupt  turns  on  the  road  of  industry  which 
impart  to  civilization  a  new  direction. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  general  acceptance  and 
rapid  development  of  automatic  machinery  coincided 
with  the  acceptance  and  development  of  the  automo- 


THE     IRON     MAN  5 

bile.  As  a  commodity,  the  automobile  was  accepted 
by  the  public  almost  overnight;  as  a  human  want, 
it  burst  into  being  rather  than  grew.  Moreover,  the 
automobile  was  not  a  development  of  an  existing 
method  of  transportation,  but  was  in  itself  a  new 
means  of  transportation.  Its  manufacturers,  con- 
sequently, faced  their  all-demanding  market  with 
open  minds.  They  had  little  or  nothing  to  junk  in 
order  to  install  the  latest  machines;  the  rewards  of 
enterprise  were  so  great  that  the  best  automatic  ma- 
chinery quickly  paid  for  itself  and  produced  profits. 
Quantity  production,  standardization  of  parts,  ex- 
treme accurac  y —  these  ensured  wide  scope  for  auto- 
matic machinery  in  automobile  production. 

The  war,  with  its  insistent  demand  for  quantity  and 
its  terrible  drain  upon  labor-power,  immensely  stim- 
ulated the  development  of  the  Iron  Man.  Shifting 
the  industrial  function  from  the  man  to  the  machine 
produced,  and  is  still  producing,  corresponding  shifts 
in  other  fields  of  action.  The  balance  of  economic 
power  was  disturbed,  with  consequent  notable  reac- 
tions upon  society,  precisely  as  the  political  structure 
of  the  globe  shakes  whenever  the  economic  balance  of 
power  is  upset. 

Perhaps  the  most  apparent  of  these  reactions  was 
the  unsettling  of  the  ratio  of  population  between  city 
and  country.  The  slogan  "Back  to  the  Land"  is 
about  twenty  years  old.  By  1905  the  chorus  grew  so 
loud,  that  President  Roosevelt  appointed  a  Country- 
Life  Commission,  to  formulate  a  programme  for  keep- 
ing people  on  the  farms.  Its  exhaustive  report  had 


6  THE    IRON    MAN 

little  effect:  cities  continued  growing  at  the  expense 
of  the  countryside.  The  1910  census  verified  alarm- 
ist predictions;  nevertheless,  in  spite  of  agitation,  the 
current  grew  in  breadth  and  speed,  until  by  1920  it 
had  become  a  flood.  For  the  first  time  in  American 
history,  January,  1920,  saw  more  than  half  the 
people  of  the  United  States  living  in  cities  and  vil- 
lages of  more  than  2500  population. 

By  chance,  the  1920  census  was  taken  at  the  peak 
of  the  flood,  and  represents  a  high-water  mark  of 
urban  congestion.  The  situation  suddenly  reversed 
itself.  In  midsummer  of  1920,  people  began  to  leave 
town.  Practically  all  cities  dependent  upon  industry 
lost  in  population.  As  might  have  been  expected, 
those  which  had  grown  most  rapidly  lost  most  rapidly, 
since,  with  man  as  with  nature,  quick  growth  means 
weak  roots.  Perhaps  the  heaviest  losses  were  sus- 
tained by  cities  equipped  for  automobile  production. 
The  trend  of  population  now  sets  unmistakably 
toward  the  rural  districts. 

Why  this  sudden  shift?  What  counter-force,  sud- 
denly applied,  sufficed  to  check  so  quickly  a  force 
operative  for  twenty  years,  and  so  powerful  that  it 
defied  the  denouncements  of  articulate  public  opinion? 
There  is  nothing  subtle  or  hidden  about  that  counter- 
force.  Economic  advantage  brought  country-folk  to 
town,  and  now  takes  them  back  to  the  land.  They 
came  cityward  for  jobs,  stayed  as  long  as  the  jobs 
lasted,  and  turned  landward  when  the  jobs  failed. 
They  came  to  operate,  or  rather  to  tend,  automatic 
machinery.  When  that  machinery,  with  their  assist- 


THE     IRON     MAN  7 

ance,  glutted  the  market  for  the  time  being,  as  many 
of  the  operatives  as  could  make  the  change  advanta- 
geously cut  back  toward  the  old  homestead  and  the 
familiar  rural  scene.  While  the  city'  of  Detroit  was 
losing  approximately  200,000  in  population  in  six 
months  (part  of  which  has  since  been  regained), 
Michigan  villages  have  been  growing.  While  Flint, 
Michigan,  lost  15,000,  the  village  of  Montrose,  eight- 
een miles  away,  gained  one  hundred,  or  20  per  cent  of 
its  census  enumeration.  Two  thousand  persons  are 
reported  to  have  left  Akron,  Ohio,  in  a  single  day, 
heading  back  toward  locations  where  work  on  the 
land  is  the  chief  pursuit  of  man. 

The  Michigan  Congregational  Conference  reviewed 
the  situation  which  presented  itself  to  rural  pastors 
when  the  "prodigal  sons,  without  jobs  or  funds," 
returned  to  the  rural  districts  in  droves.  The  return 
was  not  as  pleasant  as  the  going;  the  economic  pull 
toward  good  fortune  is  far  easier  on  human  nature 
than  the  economic  push  away  from  short  rations. 
They  went  in  hope,  and  returned  disillusioned. 
Nevertheless,  they  did  return,  thereby  relieving  the 
crowded  housing  conditions  of  manufacturing  towns, 
and  filling  with  labor-power  many  crevices  and  hol- 
lows in  the  vast,  and  of  late  undermanned,  field  of 
rural  economy.  They  will  return  to  town  if  and  when 
wanted.  The  Iron  Man  of  Industry  beckoned  them 
to  town;  the  market  glut  created  by  multiplication 
of  man-power  drove  them  back  to  the  villages  and 
farms;  and  the  Iron  Man  will  bring  them  back  when 
real  factory-wages  temporarily  rise  above  real  farm- 


8  THE     IRON     MAN 

wages.  By  removing  the  ancient  obstruction  in  the 
pipe-line  connecting  town  and  rural  labor-supplies, 
the  automatic  tool  wrought  a  channel  for  free  labor- 
flow  between  town  and  country. 

Let  us  examine  more  closely  the  manner  in  which 
the  automatic  tool  forced  this  leveling  of  labor.  In 
1901,  the  International  Order  of  Machinists  called  a 
nation-wide  strike.  Through  strict  control  of  the 
apprentice  system,  the  machinists  had  limited  their 
numbers  rigidly.  As  the  aristocrats  of  the  labor 
world,  enjoying  top  wages,  they  were  well  financed  for 
the  struggle.  That  strike  was  one  of  the  decisive  bat- 
tles of  industrial  history;  its  stake,  although  scarcely 
realized  at  the  time,  was  control  of  the  conditions 
under  which  automatic  machines  would  be  operated, 
which,  in  turn,  would  have  meant  control  of  America's 
future. 

The  strikers  lost ;  from  that  blow  union  labor  never 
fully  recovered.  Thenceforth  the  growth  of  the  open 
shop  was  sure  as  fate.  The  strikers  lost,  because 
enough  automatic  machinery  had  been  installed  to 
produce  essential  supplies,  and  because  employers 
not  so  equipped  saw  that  by  installing  the  new  tools 
they  could  carry  on  with  less  dependence  upon  skilled 
help.  Immediately  industries  of  all  sorts  entered  the 
market  for  automatic  machinery.  The  demand,  so 
fanned,  brought  forth  a  steady  stream  of  inventions 
and  improvements,  which,  continuing  to  this  day, 
has  created  a  new  set  of  industrial  relationships,  with 
all  manner  of  direct  and  indirect  effects  upon  social 


THE     IRON     MAN  9 

and  political  institutions.  America,  since  1905, 
has  marched  to  the  staccato  tune  of  the  automatic 
tool. 

Immediately,  the  factories  began  to  draw  upon 
the  countryside  for  labor.  Toward  the  beginning  of 
the  century,  the  rural  districts  possessed  a  surplus 
population  accumulated  during  the  preceding  decade. 
Country  birth-rates  are  usually  higher  than  city 
birth-rates,  and  rural  death-rates  lower  than  city 
death-rates.  It  is  an  axiom  that  the  country  produces 
population,  and  the  cities  consume  population.  From 
1800,  the  surplus  farm-population  had  been  drained 
steadily  away  from  its  points  of  origin  by  the  opening 
of  the  West.  American  farm-folk,  aided  and  abetted 
by  immigrant  farmers,  pushed  the  frontier  steadily 
from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Pacific.  These  pioneers 
found  fertile  land,  much  of  it  almost  ready-made  for 
farming  and  requiring  little  capital  to  fit  it  for  ex- 
tensive agriculture.  By  1890,  however,  only  the 
inferior  spots  and  less  accessible  areas  of  the  once  vast 
public  domain  remained  open  to  homesteaders.  These 
leavings  required  more  capital  per  acre  before  they 
could  be  worked  profitably.  The  day  had  passed 
when  the  young  farmer  could  make  good  on  a  home- 
stead through  his  own  labor  and  the  small  financial 
assistance  to  be  counted  upon  from  home.  Conse- 
quently, westward  migration  slowed  down;  the  new 
crop  of  country  boys  and  girls  stayed  closer  to  home; 
gradually,  surplus  population  appeared  in  the  rural 
districts.  This  slowing  down  of  the  westward  mi- 
gration contributed  greatly  to  the  "hard  times"  of 


io  THE     IRON     MAN 

the  early  nineties.  Then,  as  now,  a  depressed  agri- 
culture means  a  depressed  nation,  economically. 

Do  not  infer  that  the  surplus  rural  population  so 
created  was  unemployed.  Rather,  it  was  under- 
employed, not  utilized  to  full  advantage.  Its  mem- 
bers worked  steadily  as  long  as  there  was  work  to  do. 
They  earned  their  livings;  little  more.  Wages  were 
low ;  employment,  seasonal ;  existence,  practically  on 
the  subsistence  basis.  For  the  married  farm-hand  or 
woodsman  there  was  no  chance  to  get  ahead  except 
by  grinding  thrift  and  low-standard  living.  Farm 
tenants  and  small-farm  owners  were  little  better  off, 
and  Populism  flourished  as  a  natural  result. 

This  growing  labor-surplus  acted  as  a  check  upon 
farm-machinery  sales.  Man-power  on  the  farm 
became  so  cheap  that  farm-implement  makers  feared 
that  improved  machines  might  not  be  salable.  When 
the  West  was  being  brought  under  control  by  the 
American  farmer,  he  needed  machines  to  multiply 
man-power;  and  those  he  left  behind  needed  ma- 
chinery to  make  up  for  his  absence.  Demand  brought 
forth  improved  farm  machines,  in  such  abundance 
and  of  such  economic  effects,  that  it  is  not  stretching 
the  truth  to  say  that  without  them  Europe's  indus- 
trial development  could  not  have  reached  its  ante- 
war  proportions. 

In  this  sense  Cyrus  McCormick, —  or  whoever  it 
was  that  invented  the  reaper,  McCormick's  priority 
being  questioned, —  was  one  of  the  real  founders  of 
modern  Germany.  Except  for  cheap  food  produced 
with  machine  assistance,  the  industrial  cities  of 


THE    IRON    MAN  n 

Western  Europe  could  not  have  attained  their 
present  size. 

However,  the  situation  that  brought  forth  these 
improved  farm  machines  had  changed  considerably 
by  the  nineties.  The  farmer,  with  grown  sons  and 
daughters  to  feed,  faced  the  problem  of  keeping  them 
economically  employed.  He  was  not  likely  to  buy  a 
machine  that  would  throw  his  own  flesh  and  blood 
out  of  work,  unless  the  lad,  or  girl,  could  go  elsewhere 
and  support  himself.  Consequently,  manufacturers 
of  farm  machinery,  competing  against  cheap  labor 
and  family  loyalty,  concluded  to  standardize  their 
lines.  The  future,  they  believed,  called  for  every 
possible  economy  of  manufacture  and  distribution, 
even  to  the  point  of  possible  monopoly  control  of  the 
market.  They  began  to  merge  plants;  to  cooperate 
instead  of  compete.  The  year  1902  saw  the  Inter- 
national Harvester  Company  —  the  giant  in  its  field 
—  organized,  after  negotiations  covering  several 
years.  It  is  possible,  of  course,  to  interpret  such 
mergers  as  brazen  assaults  on  the  public  purse ;  but  in 
this  case,  it  seems  to  have  been  rather  a  case  of  manu- 
facturers running  to  cover  in  common  cyclone-cellars, 
before  the  storm-cloud  of  threatening  conditions  for 
their  particular  industry.  Little  did  these  manu- 
facturers guess  that  the  automatic  tool  was  about  to 
relieve  their  machines  of  cheap-labor  competition, 
and  in  a  few  years  produce  such  a  shortage  of  rural 
labor  that  every  improvement  in  farm  machinery 
would  become  immediately  salable. 

Farm  laborers,  in  this  plight,  turned  longing  eyes 


12  THE     IRON     MAN 

toward  the  towns  and  cities.  Against  all  obstacles  the 
country  has  persisted  in  feeding  the  cities,  not  alone 
with  food,  but  also  with  youth.  At  this  juncture, 
however,  the  urban  prospect  was  about  as  bad  for  the 
country  boy  as  it  had  ever  been.  He  was  expected 
to  remain,  and  usually  did  remain,  on  the  place 
as  a  boy-helper  without  wages,  until  he  reached  his 
majority.  If  he  turned  to  town  at  from  twenty-one 
to  twenty-five,  he  found  the  ranks  of  casual  labor 
overcrowded.  Unless  he  went  through  an  apprentice- 
ship of  several  years,  his  only  chance  to  get  into  a 
factory  was  as  a  roustabout.  Skill,  born  of  training 
and  experience,  dominated  the  situation;  trained 
mechanics  held  the  good  jobs;  their  sons  filled  the 
apprentice-rolls.  If  the  farm  youth  entered  ap- 
prenticeship, he  worked  alongside  boys  much  younger 
than  himself,  who  lived  at  home  and  contributed 
their  small  earnings  to  the  family  welfare,  even  as  he 
had  done.  His  apprentice  wage  would  be  only  a 
fraction  of  what  he  could  earn,  by  strength  alone,  at 
unskilled  labor.  Of  course,  some  farm  boys  per- 
severed against  this  handicap,  and  rose  to  become 
sound  mechanics,  and  even  heads  of  industrial  enter- 
prises. Others  were  indentured  early  by  farsighted 
parents.  But  we  are  dealing  with  mass  effects.  In 
general,  conditions  inherent  in  the  differing  economies 
of  farm  and  factory  conspired  to  seal  factory  gates 
against  farm  boys. 

This  was  the  situation  when  automatic  machinery 
began  to  be  applied  in  quantity  to  industrial  pro- 


THE     IRON     MAN  13 

duction  —  a  turning-point  which  may  be  roughly 
considered  as  coincident  with  the  opening  of  the 
twentieth  century.  The  first  effect  of  the  automatic 
tool  was  to  deal  the  apprentice  system  a  death-blow. 
It  lingers  on  in  many  trades,  but  is  no  longer  a  de- 
termining factor  in  the  basic  industries,  because 
automatic  machinery  has  forced  factory  gates  ajar  for 
all  men  of  ordinary  intelligence  and  average  manual 
dexterity.  Gradually,  but  in  increasing  volume,  the 
surplus  labor  of  the  countryside,  whose  power  was  not 
being  fully  exploited  on  the  land,  began  to  flow  toward 
higher  wages  and  the  comforts  and  amusements  to  be 
purchased  with  those  wages. 

The  flow  slowed  down  somewhat  in  1913,  when 
industry  marked  time  appreciably,  indicating  that 
production  had  outrun  consumption.  By  the  latter 
year  industry  had  drawn  off  the  surplus  farm  popula- 
tion ;  and  it  might  have  rested  there,  content  with  the 
farm  youth.  But,  at  the  close  of  1914,  with  enormous 
war-profits  in  the  offing,  and  heavy  orders  from 
Europe  showing  that  the  war-torn  Continent  would 
pay  well  for  the  produce  of  American  machines,  in- 
dustry reached  out  for  the  farm  men.  By  overbidding 
rural  employers,  the  mills  got  their  men  in  such 
numbers  that  the  industrial  cities  could  not  house 
them  and  their  families.  Farm-wages  and  prices, 
gradually  rising  all  through  this  transition,  now  leaped 
upward;  but  not  fast  enough  to  prevent  farms  from 
being  abandoned. 

The  post-war  period  of  industrial  expansion,  on  the 
shaky  base  of  inflated  currency  and  credits,  brought 


i4  THE    IRON     MAN 

the  townward  movement  to  its  apogee.  In  Michigan, 
where  the  common  use  of  automatic  machinery  in 
automobile  production  had  forced  a  larger  percentage 
of  urban  growth  than  in  any  state  in  the  Union,  the 
authorities,  in  the  spring  of  1920,  reported  30,000  va- 
cant farm  and  village  dwellings,  at  the  same  time  that 
every  industrial  city  in  the  state  was  wrestling  with 
the  problem  of  housing  its  new-won  population.  But 
the  moment  sound  finance  called  the  turn  on  inflation 
and  expansion,  economic  necessity  swung  the  human 
tide  back  toward  the  countryside. 

Still  another  large  class  of  workers,  designated, 
perhaps  unjustly,  as  unskilled,  found  economic  re- 
lease from  low  wages  through  the  introduction  of 
automatic  machinery.  These  were  women  domestic 
servants.  Housework,  until  quite  recently,  was  the 
chief  economic  refuge  of  untrained  women  without 
means.  Some  city  girls  went  into  stores  and  offices, 
laundries,  and  light  manufacturing,  particularly  tex- 
tiles and  clothing;  but  the  other  important  factory- 
industries  had  remained  more  or  less  closed  to  women. 
Women  never  would  have  entered  upon  apprentice- 
ships in  large  numbers,  even  if  freely  admitted:  for 
the  good  reason  that  most  women  at  the  apprentice 
age  are  looking  forward  to  marriage  and  housekeeping, 
in  which  occupation  specialized  trade  skill  is  largely 
wasted.  Domestic  service,  in  fact,  is  better  training 
for  wifehood  than  any  mill  occupation. 

These  considerations  kept  the  ranks  full  in  spite 
of  low  wages.  Moreover,  in  the  rural  offing,  there 
were  always  plenty  of  "hired  girls"  ready  to  come 


THE    IRON     MAN  15 

into  town  —  the  sisters  of  the  farm  boys  whose 
economic  progress  has  been  already  noted.  They 
were  encouraged  to  come,  because  one  less  mouth  to 
feed  left  more  for  the  others.  At  the  close  of  the 
century,  it  was  not  even  economical  to  use  these  girls 
on  the  land,  because  male  labor  was  so  abundant  and 
cheap.  When  male  help  became  scarce  enough  to 
make  women's  cooperation  in  the  active  outdoor 
work  of  the  farm  profitable,  farmers'  daughters  began 
to  don  overalls  and  produce  crops.  Not  chivalry,  but 
economics,  had  dictated  their  previous  immunity 
from  field  labor;  our  prejudice  against  such  work  did 
not  stand  the  economic  test. 

However,  automatic  machinery  opened  factory 
gates  to  women  as  well  as  men.  Since  men  were  pre- 
ferred for  most  factory  jobs,  by  reason  of  their  greater 
occupational  permanence  and  resistance  to  fatigue, 
domestic  servants  entered  industry  less  rapidly  than 
did  the  farm  males.  Some  of  them  found  their  way 
gradually  into  industry  before  1914;  but  the  great 
feminist  drive  upon  machines  did  not  start  in  earnest 
until  the  war  reduced  the  man-power  available  for 
machine  labor.  Then  the  home  women,  with  a  soli- 
darity that  could  hardly  have  been  improved  upon  by 
organization,  left  house-service  for  the  mills.  In  a 
few  months  domestic-service-wages  leaped  to  a  parity 
with  real  mill-wages,  as  farm-wages  had  done  pre- 
viously over  a  longer  period.  When  the  hand  that 
tends  the  range  can  tend  the  lathe  as  well,  why  take 
less  for  one  job  than  for  the  other? 

But  no  sooner  had  the  factories  begun  to  slow 


16  THE     IRON     MAN 

down,  than  domestic  servants  became  more  plentiful. 
Like  the  boys  from  the  farms,  some  of  the  women  are 
going  back  to  housework,  disillusioned,  fed  up  on 
factory  employment,  with  its  haste,  nerve-strain,  and 
insecurity  of  tenure.  But  they  are  in  the  minority, 
and  do  not  affect  the  general  proposition,  that  the 
automatic  tool  has  brought  the  home  and  the  mill 
into  direct  competition  for  labor. 

What  does  all  this  mean  for  the  future  of  America? 
History  —  even  recent  history  —  means  little  to 
America  except  as  a  basis  from  which  to  project  the 
future.  As  a  people,  we  prefer  looking  forward  rather 
than  back.  This  force,  which  has  worked  so  power- 
fully upon  us,  leveling  wages,  shifting  population, 
determining  home-sites  and  living  conditions,  is  still 
in  its  infancy.  Presumably  it  must  continue  its  power 
into  the  future,  leaving  no  department  of  life  unmoved 
by  its  impact.  What,  in  short,  are  likely  to  be  the 
effects  of  the  common  and  growing  use  of  automatic 
machinery  in  industrial  production  upon  American 
life,  political  institutions,  and  social  standards,  upon 
homes,  schools,  and  children? 

This  is  an  inquiry  as  broad  in  scope  as  humanity 
itself,  and  cutting  down  to  the  roots  of  life.  And  it  is 
so  complicated  that,  in  projecting  the  view,  we  must 
be  content  with  citing  tendencies  and  making  due 
allowances  for  unknown  quantities  in  the  equation, 
even  at  the  risk  of  vagueness.  But  the  essential  im- 
portance of  the  inquiry  cannot  be  overestimated.  If 
we  catch,  even  hazily,  some  idea  of  what  reasonably 


THE     IRON     MAN  17 

may  be  expected,  we  are  not  likely  to  be  shocked  into 
combating  the  inevitable;  but,  instead,  shall  ac- 
commodate ourselves  to  it  like  sensible  beings.  Since 
the  automatic  tool  works  upon  human  nature  as 
directly  as  it  works  upon  materials,  which  physical 
action  trained  minds  forecast  accurately,  qualified 
intelligences  should  be  able  to  forecast,  at  least  in 
part,  the  economic,  social,  and  political  effects  of  the 
same  machinery.  By  no  other  method  can  we  come 
upon  the  path  to  the  rational  evolution  of  industrial 
society ;  certainly  we  shall  never  find  it  by  idle  drifting 
or  hateful  smashing  of  our  institutional  birthrights. 
To  focus  the  attention  of  clear  and  open  minds  upon 
this  new  reagent  in  the  social  equation  —  the  Iron 
Man  in  Industry  —  is  the  object  of  this  book. 


II 

THE    LEVELING  OF  WAGES 

OPERATING  an  automatic  machine  requires  no 
more  than  average  manual  dexterity  and  or- 
dinary intelligence.  In  some  cases,  where  the  ma- 
terials in  process  are  heavy,  it  requires  considerable 
strength  and,  where  several  machines  are  grouped  in 
one  man's  care,  considerable  agility.  If  the  operative 
is  willing  to  trust  the  company  to  figure  his  pay  with- 
out checking  up  in  his  own  interest,  no  book  knowl- 
edge is  necessary.  Simple  arithmetic  and  ability  to 
sign  one's  name  are  the  top  intellectual  requirements. 
Most  manufacturers,  however,  prefer  to  have  their 
employees  read,  write,  and  understand  English, 
though  this  knowledge  is  by  no  means  necessary. 
Consequently,  many  companies  provide  instruction 
in  English  for  immigrants.  In  general,  the  ordinary 
public-school  instruction,  up  to  and  including  the 
eighth  grade,  gives  a  youth  all  the  mental  furnishing 
he  needs  to  function  efficiently  in  automatic  produc- 
tion. Considered  strictly  as  an  economic  being,  he 
could  get  along  with  less.  When  we  come  to  the 
salaried  workers,  the  so-called  white-collar  group,  we 
find  public  education  reinforcing  the  leveling  ten- 
dency in  those  branches,  just  as  automatic  machinery 
does  in  the  mills. 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  the  automatic  ma- 
chine leveling  wages  and  distributing  labor  as  between 
the  farm  and  factory,  home  and  mill.  In  much  the 


THE     IRON     MAN  19 

same  way,  the  spreading  use  of  automatic  machinery 
tends  to  level  wages  in  all  plants  so  equipped,  though 
hindered  at  many  points  by  special  conditions  and 
special  labor  contracts.  Certain  automatic  machines 
are  widely  scattered,  and  can  be  found  in  every  in- 
dustrial centre.  Many  others  present  family  like- 
nesses. Even  the  greenest  of  green  workers  needs 
but  short  tutelage  at  his  assigned  machine;  while  the 
man  who  knows  how  much  —  or  rather  how  little  — 
is  expected  of  him,  can  shake  down  quickly  into  effi- 
cient production.  The  per-capita  cost  of  labor  turn- 
over on  the  1920  basis  of  pay  ranged  from  $25  to  $100 
per  man  in  the  more  efficiently  organized  automobile 
plants,  this  cost  including  the  pay  of  the  novice  and 
his  teacher,  the  overhead  on  machine,  and  allowance 
for  spoiled  work.  This  verifies  the  evidence  presented 
by  a  survey  of  certain  large  allied  plants,  to  the  effect 
that  70  per  cent  of  the  employees  could  be  fitted  into 
their  jobs  in  three  days  or  less.  This  means  that  a 
worker  can  shift  from  one  line  of  production  to  an- 
other without  grave  loss  of  time.  He  may  be  a  wood- 
cutter or  harvest  hand  this  month,  and  a  producer  of 
automobile  parts  the  next.  If  of  a  roving  disposition, 
in  a  single  year  he  may  can  salmon  on  the  Pacific 
Coast,  pour  cement  on  an  irrigation  dam  in  Idaho, 
mill  flour  in  Minnesota,  cut  pearl  buttons  in  Iowa, 
mould  iron  in  Ohio,  weave  silk  in  Jersey,  and  make 
rubber  tires  in  New  England.  If  this  is  not  an  exact 
statement  at  this  writing,  it  is  fast  coming  true,  as  skill 
is  more  and  more  transferred  from  man  to  machine. 
The  outcome  of  such  easy  transitions  must  be  a  highly 


20  THEIRONMAN 

efficient  distribution  of  labor-power  on  the  one  hand, 
and,  on  the  other,  a  progressive  leveling  of  wages  as 
among  all  automatized  industries.  "The  old  trade- 
demarcations,"  says  Lloyd,  "have  largely  ceased  to 
exist ;  and  with  their  passing  the  old  differences  of  pay 
have  correspondingly  declined."  f 

This  leveling  tendency,  moreover,  is  no  respecter 
of  sex.  Since  women  can  tend  many  automatic  tools 
as  well  as  men,  it  follows  that  the  wages  of  the  two 
sexes  must  draw  together.  They  may  never  reach 
uniformity,  because  many  women  view  jobs  as  tem- 
porary stop-gaps  on  the  road  to  marriage,  and  this 
handicaps  them  as  yet  in  the  eyes  of  many  employers. 
This,  and  kindred  non-economic  considerations,  may 
affect  the  result ;  but  they  cannot  stop  the  drift  toward 
equality  of  wage.  It  is  no  unusual  thing,  even  now,  to 
find  a  young  wife  earning  as  much  as,  or  more  than, 
her  husband.  As  time  goes  on,  this  will  become  too 
common  to  command  notice. 

Likewise,  automatic  machinery  tends  to  break 
down  the  former  disparity  of  wage  as  between  age 
and  youth.  Children  of  twelve  can  tend  many  auto- 
matic machines  as  competently  as  adults.  Youths, 
in  fact,  approach  their  highest  wage  during  the  very 
years  in  which  the  boys  of  a  generation  ago  were  earn- 
ing less  than  living  wages  as  apprentices.  Eighteen 
to  twenty-five  are  the  most  gainful  years  for  the  "ma- 
chinate mammal." 

The  leveling  proceeds  with  ruthless  disregard  for 
race  or  nationality.  While  a  knowledge  of  the  native 
tongue  may  be  desirable,  it  is  by  no  means  essential. 


THEIRONMAN  21 

Witness  the  widespread  employment  of  our  newly 
arrived  immigrants  on  automatic  machines,  their  earn- 
ings on  a  par  with  those  of  native-born  products  of  our 
public  schools.  Notwithstanding  that  the  color-line 
rarely  gives  the  negro  a  chance  at  automatics,  the 
black  populations  of  our  northern  industrial  cities 
increased  faster  than  the  white  populations  from  1910 
to  1920.  '  Bringing  black  labor  north  became  a  highly 
organized  enterprise.  The  pay  for  negroes,  generally 
speaking,  maintained  a  parity  with  white  labor  on  the 
same  kind  of  work;  and  while  blacks  are  not  often  put 
on  machines,  there  is  no  doubt  that  many  blacks  can 
fill  the  requirements  of  machine  attendance.  Whether 
they  can  stand  the  steady  grind  as  well  as  whites,  or 
whether  the  color-line  is  justifiably  drawn  at  the  ma- 
chine, are  moot  points,  reserved  for  future  discussion. 
But  the  general  effect  of  the  automatizing  process  has 
been  to  bring  the  average  wages  of  the  two  races 
closer  together,  not  only  in  the  industrial  cities,  but, 
to  an  even  greater  extent,  in  those  sections  where  the 
black  does  most  of  the  field-work.  Increased  cotton- 
picking  costs  and  increased  wheat-growing  costs  both 
resulted  from  the  drain  which  automatic  production 
put  upon  rural  labor-supplies. 

Automatic  machines  in  offices  affect  the  "white- 
collar"  group  in  industry  precisely  as  shop- workers 
are  affected.  With  adding  machines  and  other  mech- 
anisms, and  standardized  office-systems,  need  for 
special  skill  is  decreasing  among  office- workers.  The 
old-fashioned  bookkeeper,  the  aristocrat  of  fin-de- 
siecle  offices,  is  fast  becoming  as  obsolete  a  type  as  the 


22  THEIRONMAN 

old-fashioned  mechanic,  the  one-time  aristocrat  of  the 
shops.  Stenographic  skill  is  subject  to  the  competi- 
tion of  the  phonograph;  the  typist  is  entering  into 
competition  with  the  duplicating  typewriter.  Mean- 
while, public  schools  and  business  colleges  are  pro- 
ducing an  abundance  of  persons  sufficiently  educated 
for  the  simplified  office  tasks.  In  addition,  the  higher 
social  status  enjoyed  by  such  workers  can  be  de- 
pended upon  to  furnish  surplus  labor  for  such  activ- 
ities in  ordinary  times;  with  the  result  that  we  pay 
practically  the  same  rate  to  washerwomen  and  typists ; 
also  to  cooks  and  stenographers,  when  board-and- 
lodging  costs  are  considered.  These  influences  tended 
to  bring  office-work  down  to  the  wage-level  of  factory- 
work  before  the  war;  as  office- workers  began  to  go 
over  into  the  ranks  of  factory- workers,  owing  to  war- 
wage  rates  in  the  factories,  office-wages  began  to  rise. 
From  this  time  on,  owing  to  the  fact  that  labor  can 
flow  from  one  group  to  the  other  more  easily  than 
ever  before,  disparity  of  wage  between  the  two  groups 
will  tend  to  correct  itself  promptly. 

Transferring  the  vital  function  of  production  from 
the  operative  to  the  machine  involves  taking  a  certain 
skill  away  from  the  rank  and  file  and  concentrating 
it  in  the  directing  and  organizing  end  of  industry.  The 
heats  of  competition,  playing  through  machine  im- 
provements, evaporate  skill  from  the  lower  reaches 
of  industry  and  distill  it  in  the  upper  reaches.  Fewer 
producers  need  skill;  but  those  few  require  much 
longer  training  and  more  highly  intensified  mental 
powers.  It  is  up  to  them,  not  only  to  design,  build, 


THEIRONMAN  23 

place,  and  adapt  machines  to  involved  tasks,  but  also 
to  work  out  systems  under  which  the  production  of 
those  machines  can  be  coordinated  and  the  produce 
distributed. 

To  fit  an  automatic  machine  for  its  production- 
cycle  requires  high  skill  in  tool-designing  and  pattern- 
making.  Head  and  hand  must  work  together;  jigs 
and  dies  must  be  of  the  utmost  precision.  The  num- 
ber of  skilled  workmen  required  for  this  task  is  small 
compared  to  the  whole  number  of  industrial  em- 
ployees; but  the  group  is  of  key  importance.  In  the 
past,  these  men  were  trained  under  the  apprentice 
system;  but  that  system  being  in  decline,  industrial 
executives  are  greatly  concerned  for  the  future  supply 
of  such  craftsmen.  They  look  to  public  education  to 
guard  against  a  famine  of  skilled  artisans;  and  such 
is  their  influence,  that  they  are  not  likely  to  look  in 
vain.  The  call  of  industry  has  been  answered  already 
by  the  establishment  of  technical  high-schools  and 
colleges  in  many  industrial  cities,  as  well  as  by  the 
erection  of  private  trade-schools.  In  desperation 
some  employers  have  established  their  own  trade- 
schools;  but  the  outlook  is  that  public  education,  thus 
challenged,  will  take  up  the  burden  of  providing  in- 
dustry with  skilled  mechanics.  Once  adequate  facil- 
ities are  provided,  we  may  look  with  assurance  for 
the  greater  mental  interest  attaching  to  that  work 
to  provide  candidates  in  abundance,  and  so  in- 
crease the  number  of  qualified  men  to  the  point 
where  the  pay  shall  approach  that  of  the  machine- 
tender  —  always  being  enough  more,  presumably, 


24  THE     IRON     MAN 

i 

to  make  up  for  the    time    and   cost  of    training. 

The  next  layer  in  the  skill  compartment  contains 
technical  experts,  shop-organizers,  and  salesmen.  The 
third  layer  includes  the  executives.  It  is  in  these 
two  layers  that  the  thought-processes  of  modern  in- 
dustry centre ;  and  the  demands  for  special  knowledge 
are  such  that  their  personnel  must  be  far  better 
equipped  than  their  predecessors  in  the  old  regime. 
In  the  swift  expansion  of  automatized  industry  they 
have  been  forced  further  and  further  afield,  for  labor 
and  materials  on  the  one  hand,  and  for  markets  on 
the  other  hand.  They  have  been  required  to  finance, 
not  only  the  inflow  of  men  and  machines,  but  also 
the  outflow  of  goods  —  a  task  so  vast  and  compelling 
that  it  has  brought  into  being  a  distinct  adaptation 
of  the  banking  function  to  industrial  needs. 

In  a  very  real  sense,  bankers  are  the  aristocrats  of 
modern  industry  —  sitting  apart  from  the  actual 
processes  of  production  and  distribution,  but  furnish- 
ing the  lifeblood  of  capital,  and  through  that  power 
exercising  a  genuine,  and  usually  salutary,  control. 
How  are  these  thought-men  of  industry  going  to  be 
affected  by  these  leveling  forces  at  work  in  modern 
society?  Are  they  going  to  be  leveled  economically 
by  the  same  forces  that  brought  them  such  large 
rewards?  Of  late  years,  in  the  era  of  industrial  ex- 
pansion, they  have  commanded  large  salaries.  What 
is  likely  to  happen  to  them  now  that  the  wheels  of 
industry  are  slowing  down? 

So  far  as  the  technical  experts  —  chiefly  chemists 
and  engineers  —  are  concerned,  the  situation  is  fairly 


THEIRONMAN  25 

clear.  They  are  being  turned  out  in  such  numbers  by 
colleges  and  universities  that,  except  in  sudden  bursts 
of  industrial  expansion,  the  supply  tends  to  outrun  the 
demand.  There  is  no  wide  rift  between  the  pay  of  a 
Bachelor  of  Science,  just  out  of  college,  and  the  pay 
of  a  factory  operative.  A  city-engineering  depart- 
ment can  hire  draughtsmen  about  as  cheaply  as 
common  laborers.  All  institutions  of  higher  learning 
are  growing  in  attendance,  particularly  in  the  tech- 
nical branches.  Also,  the  training  tends  to  become 
more  thorough,  hence  more  productive  of  men  fitted 
to  move  in  the  highest  circles  of  industrial  production. 
From  all  indications,  universities  and  colleges  are  as 
apt  to  flood  the  market  with  engineers  and  chemists 
as  the  mothers  of  the  country  are  to  flood  it  with 
unskilled  labor.  Public  education,  therefore,  tends  to 
level  toward  the  general  average  the  pay  for  such 
service. 

Salesmanship  is  similarly  affected.  The  personal 
element  does  not  play  the  large  part  that  it  once 
played  in  disposing  of  goods.  The  influence  of  ad- 
vertising is  to  create  a  market  condition  in  which  the 
salesman  becomes  more  and  more  of  an  "order-taker," 
disposing  of  standardized,  guaranteed  goods  at  prices 
and  on  terms  set  by  his  superiors  in  the  organization. 
As  dickering  is  thrust  out  of  the  sales-equation,  the 
personal  shrewdness  of  the  salesman  counts  for  less 
and  less.  His  efficiency  comes-  to  depend  less  upon 
native  traits  and  more  upon  what  can  be  taught  him. 
Salesmen  of  the  old  school  were  born,  not  made;  but 
salesmen  of  the  new  school  can  be  made  out  of  any 


26  THE     IRON     MAN 

normally  aggressive  public-school  product.  Schools 
for  salesmanship,  established  here  and  there,  are 
likely  to  succeed.  In  general,  the  process  of  distrib- 
uting goods  tends  to  become  more  scientific  and  less 
personal;  and,  as  that  change  proceeds,  the  humbler 
members  of  the  sales-organization  become  less  im- 
portant, and  more  candidates  are  available.  The  net 
result  is  that  the  salesman's  wage  tends  toward  the 
common  wage-level.  The  retail  sales-clerk,  male  or 
female,  earns  no  more  than  he  or  she  could  earn  in  a 
factory. 

The  small  retail  grocer,  whose  chief  function  is  that 
of  taking  orders,  complains  because  he  is  being  run 
out  of  business  by  a  chain  store,  whose  manager  is 
frankly  an  order-taker,  and  earns,  usually,  no  more 
than  the  average  wage  of  the  community.  His  em- 
ployer, safeguarded  by  the  cash  register  and  an  office- 
system  imposing  a  close  check,  finds  it  unnecessary 
to  pay  a  bonus  for  character  and  honesty.  The 
traveling  salesman  is  not  the  bold,  free  man  of  other 
days;  he  covers  more  territory  than  the  "drummer" 
of  twenty  years  ago,  but  he  does  not  have  equal  re- 
sponsibility. The  tendency,  all  along  the  line,  is  for 
salesmen's  wages  to  keep  in  closer  touch  with  the 
wage-level  in  the  producing  end  of  the  business. 

The  situation  as  respects  employers  is  even  more 
difficult  to  analyze,  because  executive  ability  is  so 
largely  applied  native  force,  energy,  will-power.  Ex- 
ecutives, up  to  date,  have  been  largely  self-trained. 
However,  of  late,  the  universities  and  colleges,  recog- 
nizing that  industrial  executives  are  the  most  power- 


THE     IRON     MAN  27 

ful  figures  in  an  industrial  civilization,  have  taken 
steps  to  train  men  for  these  posts.  Hence  their 
schools  of  finance  and  commerce;  hence  their  courses 
in  business  practice;  hence  the  announcements  that 
the  universities  must  train  "for  life." 

If  the  educational  system  makes  good  on  this  pro- 
gramme, it  is  evident  that  executive  salaries  must  fall. 
They  have  always  been  higher  here  than  abroad. 
Foreign  managers  are  content  with  less  pay  and  more 
prestige.  Already  the  trend  is  downward.  In  prac- 
tically every  industrial  receivership,  the  receiver's 
first  step  has  been  to  reduce  executive  salaries.  This 
leveling-down  is  matched  by  an  equally  significant 
recent  leveling-up  in  the  salaries  of  minor  executives, 
who  were  left  behind  in  the  war  raises  for  the  rank 
and  file,  by  means  of  which  the  laborer,  in  many 
cases,  came  to  earn  more  than  the  man  from  whom 
he  took  his  orders  directly.  The  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road, for  example,  some  months  ago  raised  all  its 
operating  officials  up  to  the  grade  of  superintendent, 
while  the  higher  executives  were  not  raised. 

Consideration  of  executive  salaries,  from  this 
standpoint  of  wage-leveling,  is  complicated  by  the 
fact  that  many  executives  play  a  dual  role  in  industry. 
They  are  heavy  stockholders  as  well  as  managers  of 
other  persons'  capital.  Some  managers,  in  fact,  own 
majority  interests  in  the  corporations  they  captain; 
the  corporation,  then,  is  actually  the  lengthened 
shadow  of  the  man  —  and  none  too  lengthened,  at 
that.  In  such  cases,  managers  draw  as  salaries  part 
of  the  profits  which  otherwise  would  be  apportioned 


28  THEIRONMAN 

as  dividends,  since  competition  for  leadership  does 
not  enter  into  the  equation.  This  practice  has  been 
accelerated  by  the  excess-profits  tax. 

This  dual  relationship  of  the  executive  to  his  job 
seems,  however,  to  be  a  passing  phase.  As  business 
institutions  age  and  expand,  they  tend  to  divide  the 
functions  of  management  and  ownership.  Personal 
enthusiasm  and  vigor  start  business  projects,  but 
they  proceed  toward  cooperation  under  the  corporate 
form,  with  increasing  stress  upon  order  and  system. 
Those  which  survive  several  generations  usually  are 
found  operating  under  other  leadership  than  that  of 
the  owners.  Accident  of  birth  may  produce  owners ; 
but  it  cannot  be  depended  upon  to  produce  those 
leaders  who  must  be  found  if  the  property  is  to 
flourish  under  competition. 

Few  of  our  younger  captains  of  industry  own  dom- 
inant holdings  in  the  corporations  they  manage; 
some  own  no  stock  in  their  companies.  There  is  no 
reason  why  they  should;  they  are  there  by  reason  of 
their  personal  powers  —  their  industrial  statesman- 
ship. They  are  actually  freer  to  hold  the  balance 
true  as  against  the  demands  of  labor,  capital,  and  the 
market  —  their  workers,  their  stockholders  and  bond- 
holders, and  their  customers  —  than  they  would  be 
if  strong  financial  interest  pulled  them  to  one  side! 
Homer  Ferguson,  president  of  the  Newport  News 
Shipbuilding  Company,  calls  himself  a  "plain  hired- 
man,"  owning  no  part  of  the  property  he  manages; 
he  has  elaborated  the  reasons  why  that  aloofness  from 
ownership  strengthens  him  in  his  work.  He  may 


THEIRONMAN  29 

earn  less  money  in  his  present  job  than  he  would  earn 
running  a  business  of  his  own;  on  the  other  hand,  he 
has  more  prestige,  greater  opportunity.  Judge  Gary 
dominates  United  States  Steel,  not  by  stock-owner- 
ship or  stock-jobbing,  but  by  the  power  of  a  wise  and 
courageous  mind.  In  his  case,  too,  the  chief  reward 
lies  in  doing  a  big  work  and  winning  the  applause  of 
the  public,  not  in  his  salary  check.  You  cannot  pic- 
ture either  man,  or  any  other  industrial  leader  worthy 
of  rank  alongside  them,  as  quitting  his  job  in  the  face 
of  a  salary-cut,  or  as  higgling  over  the  price  of  his 
preferment  in  the  first  instance. 

In  the  future,  industrial  leaders  will  tend  more  and 
more  to  be  picked  men,  not  owners  in  any  important 
sense.  Their  salaries  will  depend  upon  the  number 
of  qualified  men  in  the  market,  and  the  existing  de- 
mand for  their  services.  The  lure  of  such  positions, 
and  the  determined  efforts  being  made  to  educate  for 
business  leadership,  are  sure  to  increase  the  number 
of  qualified  candidates.  The  demand  is,  of  course, 
uncertain;  but  the  chances  are  that  it  will  not  main- 
tain itself  relatively  to  supply,  now  that  education, 
both  public  and  private,  has  set  itself  to  increase  the 
supply.  In  that  case,  the  present  high  level  of  execu- 
tive salaries  cannot  be  maintained.  All  indications 
point  to  the  executives  of  the  future  carrying  their 
loads  of  responsibility  less  because  of  the  money  re- 
ward and  more  because  of  personal  pride  and  public 
spirit.  Business  leadership  seems  likely  to  become  a 
profession,  with  professional  standards  and  standing, 
as  well  as  professional  limitations  as  to  pay. 


30  THE     IRON     MAN 

The  learned  professions,  so-called  for  tradition's 
sake,  are  easier  to  dispose  of,  because,  in  each  case, 
the  leveling  tendency  is  reinforced  by  an  established 
professional  ethic.  Teachers,  preachers,  writers  and 
artists  generally,  for  centuries  have  regarded  their 
wages,  not  as  pay,  but  as  their  living,  their  real  re- 
wards being  service  to  their  ideals  and  humanity, 
established  social  position,  and  the  regard  of  their 
fellow  men.  These  non-economic  lures  attract  human 
nature  so  strongly  that  the  rewards  in  these  lines 
sometimes  fall  below  those  of  unskilled  labor.  Poets 
have  starved  in  garrets;  ministers  are  notoriously 
underpaid;  and  of  late  years  comparison  of  the 
pinched  professor  and  the  silk-shirted  yokel  has  led 
to  "Feed-the-Prof."  campaigns. 

Law  and  medicine,  because  they  work  more  di- 
rectly upon  life,  have  been  more  affected  by  the 
industrial  swirl ;  but  they,  too,  are  bound  to  swim  out 
of  the  commercial  current  to  the  high  ethical  shore. 
Even  now,  though  physicians  may  talk  about  their 
business,  they  respond  to  many  humanitarian  de- 
mands; and  there  exist  some  lawyers,  if  not  many, 
who  put  the  eternal  cry  for  justice  ahead  of  fees.  So, 
the  leveling  influences  of  automatic  machinery  are 
bound  to  be  reinforced  and  strengthened  by  the 
example  of  professional  men,  no  less  than  by  the 
teaching  of  those  among  them  who  see  service  as  the 
high  goal  of  human  endeavor. 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  the  leveling  of  labor, 
as  dictated  by  the  automatic  tool,  solely  from  the 
standpoint  of  production.  That  is  its  direct  action. 


THE     IRON     MAN  31 

Automatic  machinery  works  indirectly  toward  the 
same  end,  however,  through  the  market  —  through 
consumption.  As  the  total  cost  of  the  product  is  the 
total  cost  of  the  brain-labor  and  hand-labor  involved, 
an  immediate  effect  of  production  through  automatic 
machines  is  to  reduce  the  cost  of  the  units  produced. 
The  economic  advantage  of  such  machinery  is  so 
manifest  that  there  can  be  no  stopping  its  progress 
short  of  the  point  where  productive  power  so  far  out- 
ranges the  world's  market  ability  to  consume,  that 
further  multiplication  of  man-power  is  not  worth 
while.  No  one  can  foresee  whether  that  point  is 
centuries  removed,  or  merely  decades.  Theoretically, 
the  capacity  of  the  human  race  to  consume  goods  is 
infinite ;  but  actually  it  is  at  all  times  in  competition 
with  the  universal  human  demand  for  leisure.  No 
matter  how  cheap  goods  become,  there  is  a  point  of 
accumulation  beyond  which  some  men  will  say,  "Let 's 
knock  off  and  have  some  fun."  The  ranks  of  labor 
developed  plenty  of  such  cases  in  1919. 

Short  of  that  point,  however,  the  market  repays 
intensive  cultivation.  The  cheaper  goods  become, 
the  more  of  them  can  be  sold,  provided  pur- 
chasing power  does  not  drop  coincidentally  with 
prices.  It  follows  that,  with  increasing  automatiza- 
tion in  production,  competition  among  sellers  of 
goods  on  the  one  hand  and  buyers  of  labor-time  on 
the  other  must  push  prices  and  wages  toward  a  point 
where  maximum  production  and  maximum  con- 
sumption tend  to  coincide.  Such  is  the  variety  of 
human  nature  and  the  insistence  of  human  desire 


32  THE     IRON     MAN 

that  they  may  never  reach  absolute  coincidence;  but 
the  prospects  are  that  they  will  approach  one  another 
with  lessening  fluctuations.  In  this  country,  mass- 
buying  makes  the  market  for  most  commodities.  A 
broad  division  of  the  proceeds  of  industry  stimulates 
buying  far  more  than  a  narrow  one;  hence  influences 
flowing  from  the  sales-end  of  industry  will  tend  to 
strengthen  that  leveling  of  labor  which  is  predeter- 
mined by  competition  among  buyers  of  labor-power 
for  use  on  automatic  machines. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  under  competition, 
some  degree  of  wage- variation  always  will  exist,  from 
causes  lying  within  the  individual,  as,  for  example, 
the  varying  wages  of  operatives  under  piece-rates. 
For,  while  the  automatic  tool  works  within  a  fixed 
cycle,  it  is  not  the  precise  counterpart  of  the  ancient 
treadmill.  Within  narrow  and  unimportant  limits,  its 
productiveness  varies  somewhat  with  variations  of 
personal  energy  and  attentiv.eness.  Likewise,  there 
are  sure  to  be  variations  in  different  parts  of  the 
country,  due  largely  to  uneven  supply  of  labor-power 
resulting  from  differing  local  birth-rates  and  non- 
economic  hindrances  to  economic  shifts  of  base. 
Home  and  family  ties,  love  of  one's  native  environ- 
ment, stock-ownership  by  employees,  and  personal 
loyalties  in  work-relations,  probably  always  will  in- 
fluence human  beings  considerably,  and  deter  them 
from  following  the  main  chance  absolutely.  Baro- 
metric pressure  always  tends  to  uniformity,  yet  is 
never  uniform.  The  wind  blowing  where  it  listeth 
has  its  counterpart  in  the  now  fluid  movement  of 


THE     IRON     MAN  33 

labor  in  search  of  employment,  higher  pay,  or,  per- 
haps, only  escape  from  monotony.  Enough  men  and 
women  can  be  depended  upon  to  follow  the  main 
chance,  to  effect  a  fairly  even  displacement  of  labor- 
power  and  to  enforce  by  economic  law  a  fairly  even 
wage-scale  over  the  entire  country. 

Not  the  least  interesting  part  of  this  leveling  ten- 
dency is  that  it  runs  directly  toward  that  Socialist 
dream  —  equality  of  income.  Yet  it  proceeds  with- 
out any  assistance  from  the  Socialists,  solely  as  the 
result  of  the  installation  of  automatic  machinery  by 
capitalists.  The  tendency  itself  is  strictly  economic, 
and  conceivably  might  work  out  to  its  ultimate  con- 
clusion without  calling  forth  political  action,  amend- 
ing the  institution  of  private  property,  or  changing 
the  present  relations  between  employer  and  em- 
ployee. Nothing  so  simple  is  to  be  expected;  not  so 
easily  does  humanity  accept  revolutionary  changes 
in  its  methods  of  sustaining  life.  Farmer-labor  parties 
in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  recently  formed, 
may  be  taken  as  evidence  of  belated  appreciation  of 
the  economic  solidarity  of  town  and  country  labor 
under  the  new  conditions  of  industry. 

Woman  suffrage  gained  influence  in  direct  propor- 
tion as  women  became  engaged  in  industrial  produc- 
tion. The  automatic  tool  will  be  the  force  behind 
most  of  our  legislation  for  the  next  fifty  years,  just  as 
it  will  be  the  mainspring  of  our  educational  pro- 
gramme, once  its  significance  is  understood  by  edu- 
cators still  fumbling  for  the  key  to  modern  life.  To 
lads  who  come  as  beardless  boys  into  their  greatest 


34  THE     IRON     MAN 

purchasing  power,  something  must  be  taught  other 
than  has  been  taught,  if  they  are  ever  to  use  their 
leisure  and  their  economic  power  aright.  The  army 
of  homeless,  wifeless  men  and  foot-loose  women  is 
growing;  the  automatic  tool  has  cut  marriage-knots 
as  well  as  steel  bands.  Let  all  who  think  in  terms  of 
public  recreation,  domestic  relations,  charity,  re- 
ligion, morals,  child-welfare,  and  social  science  ponder 
those  reactions  of  the  automatic  tool  that  daily  pro- 
ceed under  their  eyes. 

In  other  parts  of  the  world  classes  are  wrestling 
bloodily  for  the  control  of  machinery.  They  are  of 
breeds  to  whom  compromise  is  difficult.  It  is  our 
boast  that  we,  as  inheritors  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  tra- 
dition, can  settle  peaceably  clashes  of  interest  over 
which  other  humans  fight.  But  we  shall  never  be 
able  to  settle  peaceably  and  creditably  all  the  prob- 
lems arising  out  of  the  common  use  of  the  automatic 
tool  in  industrial  production,  unless  we  grasp  the 
social  and  political  possibilities  of  its  evolution. 

America  gave  the  automatic  tool  its  chance.  Its 
blessings  are  evident;  but,  unless  controlled  by  social 
conscience,  it  may  develop  curses  equally  potent. 
America's  high  duty  is  to  guide  the  continuing  evolu- 
tion of  the  Iron  Man  intelligently.  For  the  economic 
forces  which  he  releases  are  of  such  intense  reality 
and  abundant  vitality,  that  they  will  break  govern- 
ments which  blindly  oppose  them  just  as  quickly  as 
they  will  undermine  societies  which  yield  too  supinely 
to  machine  dictation.  Governments  now  stake  their 
existences  upon  controlling  men ;  in  the  dawning  age, 


THE     IRON     MAN  35 

the  acid  test  of  sovereignty  may  be  control  of  machines. 
Through  such  control  the  leveling  tendency,  inherent 
in  automatic  production  and  reinforced  by  popular  edu- 
cation, may  be  directed  toward  the  goal  of  true  democ- 
racy; whereas,  undirected,  it  may  push  the  human 
race  into  a  new  slavery,  or  stampede  it  into  a  new 
anarchy. 


Ill 

MIND  AND   MACHINE 

MEN  go  to  machines  under  the  same  compulsions 
which  have  sent  them  into  field  and  forest, 
ocean  lane,  and  battlefield,  since  ever  the  world  began 
—  their  needs  and  their  instincts.  To  supply  ever- 
expanding  wants  with  least  effort  has  called  forth, 
from  one  generation  to  another,  enough  ingenuity  and 
adaptability  to  lift  certain  breeds  from  lawless  indi- 
vidualists, with  scant  possessions  and  moving  in  re- 
stricted circles,  into  responsible  units  in  a  complicated 
social  and  industrial  order,  where  life  is  reasonably 
secure,  where  wealth  is  abundant  though  unevenly 
spread,  and  where  the  production  and  distribution  of 
marketable  goods  proceeds  largely  through  interde- 
pendent groupings  of  many  individuals.  Within 
these  groups  the  many  work  at  the  direction  of  the 
few,  under  discipline  approaching  military  exactitude, 
for  all  that  it  is  based  upon  bargaining  between  equals 
under  the  law.  Leaders  and  led  alike  perform  certain 
organically  selected  functions  essential  to  the  group, 
the  community,  and  the  state.  Through  division  of 
function,  through  subordination  of  personalities  to 
leadership  in  organizations  applying  force  to  matter 
with  scientific  precision,  life  has  been  ameliorated  as 
well  as  vastly  complicated.  That  this  amelioration 
of  life,  which  we  call  civilization,  is  still  a  going  con- 
cern, full  of  vitality,  is  proved  by  the  very  stresses 
and  pains  which  its  innovations  rouse. 


THE     IRON     MAN  37 

Continuing  attempts  by  the  innovating  animal, 
Man,  to  feed,  clothe,  and  satisfy  himself  with  the 
least  effort,  brought  forth  naturally,  and  in  process, 
the  application  of  machinery  to  production,  at  first 
haltingly,  but  latterly  with  a  rush  that  finds  this 
generation  well  on  its  way  to  as  complete  automatiza- 
tion as  human  nature  is  capable  of  sustaining.  Eco- 
nomically the  course  is  clear  enough — plain  sailing 
between  this  point  and  some  future  point,  where  men, 
with  minimum  effort  of  mind  and  muscle,  shall  do  the 
essential  work  of  the  world  mechanically,  in  so  far  as 
machinery  can  be  adapted  to  the  task.  The  limiting 
force  resides,  not  so  much  in  the  ability  of  our  most 
enterprising  selectmen  to  mechanize  the  planet,  as  in 
their  seemingly  more  restricted  ability  to  make  the 
job  appear  worth  while  to  those  who  come  to  grips 
with  machinery  in  action  —  the  common  folk. 

Economic  Man  is  an  abstraction  essential  to  scien- 
tific inquiry,  though  nowhere  found  in  the  flesh,  and, 
where  approximated,  not  pleasant  to  have  as  a 
neighbor.  Homo  sapiens  is  social  man  and  political 
man  and  religious  man  as  well  as  economic  man.  He 
follows  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  not  only 
economically,  but  also  biologically.  He  loves,  mates, 
breeds,  fights  for  and  labors  for  his  wife,  his  home, 
his  children.  And  presently  he  dies,  in  the  hope  of 
an  extension  of  life  beyond  the  grave,  and  is  buried 
with  honor  by  his  kind.  In  his  life  he  has  many 
governors ;  among  them  the  state  is  sovereign  and  the 
shop  parvenu. 

This  composite  mystery  enters  the  shop,  and  takes 


38  THE     IRON     MAN 

his  place  beside  the  machine,  to  use  a  small  but 
definite  fraction  of  his  powers  in  assisting  it  to  pro- 
duce and  distribute  goods.  Call  him  Number  3141 
if  you  choose;  nevertheless,  he  differs  from  numbers 
3140  and  3142  and  all  other  men,  living  or  dead.  No 
one,  from  this  time  forward  to  eternity,  ever  will  be 
cast  in  exactly  the  same  mould  as  he.  Labor  is  more 
than  labor;  each  labor  unit  is  also  an  individual, 
immeasurably  dear  to  himself,  even  in  despair. 

What  the  shop  precisely  wants,  it  cannot  hire.  It 
may  want,  though  never  wisely,  mere  hands  and  feet 
and  backs;  they  do  not  exist  detached  from  lusts, 
faiths,  superstitions.  It  may  want  eyes,  sensitive 
fingers,  or  specialized  knowledge;  they  are  not  to  be 
divorced  from  nerves  and  prejudices.  Instead,  the 
labor  market  presents  men  and  women  in  infinite 
variety;  but  in  each  is  incorporated  something,  be  it 
little  or  much,  which  the  shop  cannot  use.  The  shop 
picks  and  chooses,  combs  and  examines,  consults 
records;  nevertheless,  the  chosen  ones  carry  inside 
the  gates  that  which  may  result  in  an  appeal  from  its 
regimen  to  the  anarchy  of  force,  or  to  the  authority 
of  the  state  —  the  appeal  to  Demos  or  to  Caesar. 

This  mental  luggage,  largely  superfluous  from  the 
standpoint  of  immediate  industrial  need,  may  be 
catalogued  for  analysis;  but  the  catalogue,  however 
extended,  remains  a  convenient  lie,  since  each  ele- 
ment merges  with  all  the  others  and  affects  all  the 
others.  With  this  attainder  established,  the  mental 
luggage  of  the  man  going  to  the  machine  may  be 
listed  briefly  as  instincts,  emotions,  traditions,  beliefs, 


THE     IRON     MAN  39 

habits  of  thought  and  conduct  —  those  qualities  of 
mind  and  spirit  which,  in  their  interplay,  not  only 
establish  the  individuality  of  their  possessor,  but  also 
govern  his  reactions  to  authority  and  to  the  responsi- 
bilities involved  in  home  and  social  relationships. 

These  primary  qualities  of  the  mind  have  their 
roots  in  the  dawn  of  life  on  this  planet;  in  Creation, 
if  you  deny  Darwin;  in  intertidal  scum,  if  you  accept 
Wells.  But,  whatever  their  origin,  they  are  the  fruits 
of  race-experience  through  many  generations;  and 
under  the  lash  of  sex  we  shall  pass  them  on,  perhaps 
with  minor  changes,  to  our  successors.  Our  con- 
tribution to  the  subconscious  mind  is  not  likely  to  be 
as  rich  and  important  as  the  press-agents  of  our 
braggart  era  declare.  Indeed,  we  may  influence  the 
subconscious  more  than  any  preceding  generation, 
and  yet  add  but  a  mite  to  its  store,  so  ancient  is  its 
origin  and  so  vital  its  accumulations.  The  subcon- 
scious mind  may  be  reckoned  the  reservoir  of  human 
experience;  here  is  the  cause  of  Man's  rise  to  com- 
mand on  the  planet ;  here  the  rough  foundations  of  his 
social  and  political  institutions;  here  the  explanation, 
perhaps  never  to  be  unraveled,  of  his  greeds,  wars, 
sins,  as  well  as  of  his  virtues,  loyalties,  and  visions. 

i  Subtract  the  subconscious  from  high  intelligence  — 
the  residue  is  not  Man,  with  his  hates  and  loves,  urges 
and  repressions,  but  a  monstrosity  of  greed  and 
reason.  Subtract  it  from  a  person  of  low  intelligence; 
and  the  result  is  a  semblance  of  the  bestial.  Both  are 
asocial;  the  one,  a  menace  through  his  efficiency;  the 
other,  a  menace  through  his  deficiency.  Therefore 


4o  THEIRONMAN 

it  is  of  the  subconscious  mind  that  one  may  say, 
"This  is  the  reality  of  human  existence.  The  truth 
about  human  affairs  is  not  to  be  found  altogether  in 
what  is  written  in  the  bond  and  certified  to  in  the 
records.  You  must  consult  the  instincts;  you  must 
go  back  to  the  wells  of  life.  Peer  into  those  misty, 
uncertain  depths  diligently  enough,  and  you  may  get 
some  hint,  however  faint,  of  the  reality  of  the  human 
spirit  in  travail  or  in  joy." 

Comes  now  this  heavy-laden,  complex  Ego  to  the 
machine.  Pleasant,  indeed,  for  both  parties,  if  the 
management  could  separate  the  workman  from  such 
mental  luggage  as  is  superfluous  inside,  and  check  it 
at  the  door,  to  be  reassumed  upon  return.  How  sim- 
ple if  the  mental  man  could  shuck  his  cravings  as  the 
physical  man  doffs  his  coat!  Yet,  until  we  know 
more  of  the  meaning  of  life,  it  is  perhaps  just  as  well 
that  Man  is  indivisible,  and  that  the  shop  must  take 
the  useless  with  the  useful,  the  bitter  with  the  sweet. 
For  it  is  the  unknown  and  unassayable  which  gives 
life  its  zest,  labor  its  hope,  and  industry  its  adventure. 

No  doubt,  those  mental  traits  and  prepossessions 
which  we  group  and  label  under  the  convenient  title, 
"  subconscious,"  at  one  time  had  clearer  economic 
significance  than  they  possess  at  present.  However 
men  compete  for  their  livings,  those  attributes  which 
make  for  survival  tend  to  be  passed  on,  while  those 
less  utilitarian  are  eliminated  under  the  stern  pres- 
sure of  necessity.  Every  piece  of  subconscious  lug- 
gage which  the  modern  carries  to  the  machine  must 
at  some  time  have  been  of  conscious  value  to  enough 


THEIRONMAN  4i 

of  his  ancestors  to  fix  that  trait  for  survival.  Else  it 
must  have  been  sunk  without  trace  in  the  laborious 
business  of  keeping  alive. 

Labor  is  the  price  of  life.  The  tree  labors  in 
growth;  the  field-mouse  labors  in  each  search  for 
grain.  Man  differs  from  other  animals  in  that  he  is 
conscious  of  his  labors  and  articulate  concerning 
them.  Labor-pain  stirs  him  to  thought  and  expres- 
sion ;  but  he  may  be  even  more  distressed  by,  though 
less  conscious  of,  his  indirect  labor-strains.  Industrial 
labor-pain,  being  easily  recognized  for  what  it  is,  can 
be  alleviated  or  compensated  for  inside  the  shop; 
labor-strain,  on  the  other  hand,  less  simple  of  diag- 
nosis, has  a  way  of  eluding  direct  action  and  spread- 
ing out  and  down,  until,  massed  and  complicated,  it 
presents  itself,  not  to  the  principals  in  their  principal 
relation,  but  to  society  and  the  state  —  to  the  prin- 
cipals, that  is,  in  their  more  remote  relations  as 
neighbors  and  citizens.  Labor-pain,  by  and  large, 
gives  us  labor  problems  into  which  the  state  injects 
itself  only  as  a  last  resort;  while  broad  and  con- 
tinued labor-strain  begets  social  and  political  prob- 
lems, powerful  cross-currents  of  opinion,  which  first 
agitate  the  homes  of  the  humble,  and  in  due  course 
agitate  the  parliaments  of  the  world. 

With  this  distinction  between  labor-pain  and  labor- 
strain  established,  but  remembering  always  that  the 
twain  are  more  easily  separated  on  paper  than  in  the 
flesh,  let  us  examine  the  effect  of  automatic  and  semi- 
automatic machinery  upon  the  minds  of  its  attend- 
ants —  the  mill  operatives. 


42  THEIRONMAN 

Such  machines  make  relatively  small  demands  upon 
the  wits  of  their  companions;  the  operative's  job  is 
more  passive,  mentally,  than  active.  Once  his 
limited  function  is  learned,  once  the  man  knows  how 
to  place  standardized  material  in  proper,  predeter- 
mined fashion,  he  can  earn  his  pay  without  further 
mental  effort.  He  must  be  attentive,  must "  dot  and 
carry  one  "  exactly  so,  because  the  machine  is  valuable, 
and  failure  to  move  when  and  as  directed  may  cost 
his  employer  more  in  spoilage  than  the  operative's 
yearly  wage.  The  man  is  not  so  much  driven,  as 
paced ;  his  usefulness  depends  upon  his  never  failing 
the  strident  call  of  the  Iron  Man.  He  nurses  his 
charge,  feeds  it,  relieves  it  of  produce,  and  perhaps 
makes  slight  repairs  in  a  jam.  But,  if  the  case  is 
serious,  he  calls  a  machinist,  just  as  an  infant's  nurse 
calls  for  the  physician  in  emergency. 

I  watched  a  man  shove  metal  rings  across  six  inches 
of  space,  to  a  guide  from  which  they  were  taken 
automatically  through  the  machine,  emerging  slotted 
some  seconds  later,  without  more  human  ado.  That 
was  his  job  from  morning  until  night,  his  pay  de- 
pending upon  how  many  slotted  rings  passed  inspec- 
tion. Eyes  concentrated  on  his  little  platform,  one 
hand  moving  thus,  the  other  so,  in  unending  repeti- 
tion, he  missed  not  one  revolution  of  the  wheels, 
which  were  grinding  out  his  life,  even  as  they  ground 
out  the  goods.  Economically  he  was  part  of  the  ma- 
chine —  an  automatic  feeder,  who  chanced  to  be 
flesh-and-blood-and-mind.  Presently,  no  doubt,  he 
will  be  relieved  of  that  particular  job  by  a  mechanical 


THE     IRON     MAN  43 

extension  of  that  particular  Iron  Man,  since  the 
human  was  doing  nothing  that  could  not  be  done 
better  by  metal  in  motion. 

Assembling  of  interchangeable  machined  parts 
proceeds,  in  efficient  plants,  with  almost  equally 
minute  division  of  function.  Your  automobile  frame, 
let  us  say,  is  hoisted  so  that  it  may  acquire  axles. 
Then  it  moves  along  a  conveyer,  before  gangs  of  men, 
each  of  whom  performs  thereon  a  certain  specified 
task  for  which  just  so  much  time  is  allowed,  because 
the  conveyer  moves  at  a  fixed  rate  of  speed,  and  each 
gang  is  allotted  a  space  alongside,  and  moves  forward 
and  back  in  that  space  as  the  conveyer  works.  One 
attaches  the  right  front- wheel ;  another  the  left  rear- 
wheel;  a  third  tightens  certain  screws  with  a  pneu- 
matic wrench.  Let  a  single  human  fail  in  his  assign- 
ment, and  rather  than  permit  that  delay  to  clog  the 
whole  line  of  cars  in  process,  the  lagging  unit  is  pulled 
out  of  line,  to  await  the  next  shift.  Thus,  within  an 
hour  from  the  time  a  naked  frame  starts  down  the 
assembly  line,  a  shrewd  and  swiftly  moving  division 
of  labor  has  completed  thereon  a  finished  motor- 
car, capable  of  moving  to  the  loading  docks  under  its 
own  power.  Its  power-plant  has  been  both  painted 
and  dried  within  the  hour.  To  it  have  been  given  a 
body  highly  polished,  curtains,  cushions,  tools,  and, 
finally,  a  tag  setting  it  apart  for  someone  near  or  far 
—  Doc  Kennicott  of  Gopher  Prairie,  or  the  Gaekwar 
of  Baroda. 

In  that  swift  progress  hundreds  of  men  have  worked 
upon  each  car,  combining  into  effectiveness  the  work 


44  THE     IRON     MAN 

of  other  thousands,  whose  produce  is  brought  up  by 
truck  from  storerooms  and  source-factories,  and 
rushed  into  assigned  positions.  Each  man  performs 
the  same  task  over  and  over:  tightens  identical  nuts, 
lifts  identical  parts  off  a  rack,  and  applies  each  one  of 
them  precisely  to  a  something  that  is  exactly  like  its 
predecessor  to  the  thousandth  of  an  inch .  This  accurate, 
monotonous  toil  goes  on  swiftly, amid  hissing  air- valves 
and  paint-streams,  roar  of  dryingovens,  clatter  of  tools, 
thunder  of  trucks  arriving  and  departing.  As  evi- 
dence of  the  organizing  faculty  in  master  minds,  as  a 
study  in  unity  and  synchronized  power  over  divers 
beings  and  things,  the  action  is  impressive,  in  totality 
almost  beautiful;  but  for  its  individual  contribution 
it  leaves  something  to  be  desired  as  an  expression  of 
the  art  of  life.  Not  altogether  for  this,  surely,  is  man 
made. 

Some  of  these  operations  involve  much  muscular 
effort,  others  little;  but,  whether  little  or  much,  each 
operative  uses  the  same  set  of  muscles,  for  approx- 
imately the  same  length  of  time,  in  each  repetition  of 
his  assigned  operation.  Roustabouts  enjoy  far  more 
of  the  luxury  of  variety  in  toil  than  machine  tenders 
in  automatized  factories. 

The  operating  of  automatic  and  semi-automatic 
machinery  evolves  evidence  tending  to  show  that 
fatigue,  instead  of  being  simply  weariness  from  mus- 
cles stretched  too  much  or  too  often,  is  rather  a 
pathological  condition,  due  to  the  poisoning  of  the  sys- 
tem through  oversecretion  of  the  endocrinal  glands. 
Whatever  the  theorizing  as  to  endocrinal  glands, 


THE    IRON     MAN  45 

it  is  probably  true  that  there  is  an  excessive  out- 
pouring under  nervous  tension,  when  effort  is  pro- 
longed beyond  the  normal  fatigue  limit,  which  out- 
pouring causes  pathological  fatigue,  indicated  by 
preternatural  activity.  This  theory,  held  by  compe- 
tent investigators,  and  advanced  by  them  with  reser- 
vations proper  in  a  matter  where  exactness  is  difficult, 
seems  to  explain,  as  well  as  receive  support  from,  many 
of  the  reactions  of  our  industrial  operatives  to  their 
labors. 

In  general,  machine-production  of  goods  involves 
less  muscular  and  sensory  strain  than  that  put  for- 
ward under  the  handicraft  system.  Fatigue  in  in- 
dustrial workers  must  be  ascribed  more  to  monotony 
in  movement  and  problem  than  to  foot-pounds  of 
energy  expended.  One  may  use  merely  his  finger-tips 
feeding  metal  discs  into  a  machine,  and  yet  be  as 
weary  in  the  evening  as  if  he  had  been  swinging  an 
axe.  The  lumberjack's  weariness  is  an  all-round 
fatigue,  and  he  is  ready  for  bed  at  sundown ;  whereas 
industrial  workers  seem  moved  to  abnormal  activity 
after  working  hours.  My  fellow  citizens,  most  of 
whom  work  in  factories  where  the  industrial  function 
is  minutely  divided,  and  where  machines  set  the  pace, 
display  astonishing  energy  in  after-work  pursuits. 
The  married  men  reestablish  their  equilibrium  by 
gardening  prodigiously,  and  tinkering  furiously 
around  their  homes  —  a  socially  satisfactory  adjust- 
ment. The  homeless  rush  hither  and  thither  by  motor 
when  they  are  flush ;  or  wander  aimlessly  around  the 
streets  when  they  are  broke.  Books  and  quiet  con- 


46  THE    IRON    MAN 

versation  are  a  bit  too  tame  for  men  who  feel  that, 
while  they  get  their  livings  in  the  shop,  they  must 
live  their  lives  outside  the  shop. 

This  may  be  explained  as  Nature's  effort  to  correct 
a  nerve-distortion  resulting  from  the  exercise  of  cer- 
tain muscles  and  faculties  while  all  others  are  held 
out  of  use.  Glandular  secretions,  roused  by  an  over- 
stressed  fraction  of  the  anatomy,  spread  beyond  that 
fraction,  to  stimulate  the  rest  of  the  man  into  height- 
ened activity.  These  men  are  in  a  condition  parallel 
to  that  in  which  many  a  business  man  finds  himself 
after  prolonged  concentration  upon  a  problem  which 
defies  satisfactory  solution.  He  becomes  too  tired  to 
sleep;  works  feverishly;  and,  unless  he  lets  down, 
breaks  down.  Either  type  is  apt  to  seek  relief  in 
stimulants,  and  to  crave  thrills  temporarily  blotting 
out  the  discontent  that  overlays  their  lives. 

At  the  root  of  this  discontent  lies  the  difficulty  of 
adjusting  human  beings  to  modern  industry.  Race- 
inheritance  fits  us  for  other,  simpler  pursuits.  For 
unnumbered  generations  we  white  folks  have  been 
building  up  resistance  to,  and  recovering  from,  the 
fatigue  which  follows  muscle-labor.  Except  for  the 
comparatively  small  fraction  of  our  ancestors  who 
went  in  for  learning,  trade,  or  the  handicrafts,  the 
life  of  the  masses,  until  the  Industrial  Revolution 
began  in  England,  about  1765,  had  been  the  slow  life 
of  soil  and  water  —  agriculture,  hunting  and  fishing, 
with  occasional  relapses  into  war;  occupations  re- 
quiring intense  physical  exertion  through  short 
periods,  and  allowing  frequent  let-ups.  Until  so 


THE     IRON     MAN  47 

recently  Man  worked  by  the  sun  and  the  seasons, 
instead  of  by  the  calendar  and  the  clock.  Even  the 
villein  ploughing  his  lord's  glebe  could  stop  for  a 
chat  with  his  neighbor  passing  on  the  highway. 
Thrills  a-plenty  filled  common  lives;  there  were  the 
touch-and-go  of  the  chase;  rustic  ceremonies  at  seed- 
time and  harvest;  a  chance  to  look  in  through  the 
servant's  door  upon  the  festivities  of  the  manor-house ; 
and  always  a  close,  if  servile,  relation  with  his  boss. 
Bond  the  villein  was,  but  his  bond  held  both  ways  — 
upon  master  no  less  than  upon  man.  The  worker  at 
least  had  the  blessing  of  security  in  his  job,  now  so 
uncertain;  he  could  not  be  fired,  even  as  he  could  not 
hire  himself  away. 

That  simple  existence  seems  to  be  the  kind  of  life 
for  which  the  common  man  is  constituted.  Physi- 
cally, he  goes  his  best  gait  for  a  hundred  yards,  fells 
his  third  tree  more  accurately  than  he  fells  his  thir- 
tieth, ploughs  his  straightest  furrow  toward  the  rising 
sun.  He  needs  a  measure  of  monotony  in  toil;  shift- 
ing at  quick-step  from  this  job  to  that  bothers  him; 
but  the  work  which  gives  him  most  satisfaction,  and 
which,  all  things  considered,  he  does  best,  is  that 
furnishing  variety  in  detail  with  sameness  in  essen- 
tials. Were  every  tree  placed  exactly  like  every  other 
tree,  to  be  felled  from  a  like  stance  in  the  one  direction, 
with  no  nice  problem  of  adjustment  presenting  itself 
to  the  common  sense  and  skill  of  the  axe-man,  then 
our  lumberjack  would  return  to  his  shack,  not  only 
more  fatigued  in  body  than  usual,  but  infinitely  more 
weary  in  his  mind.  If  a  high-grade  carpenter  faced 


48  THE     IRON     MAN 

the  prospect  of  building  identical  houses  all  the  rest 
of  his  life,  with  never  a  chance  to  revel  in  a  bit  of  im- 
provisation, would  he  relish  that  prospect?  Hardly. 
What  he  wants  —  what  every  man  above  the  grade 
of  moron  craves  in  toil  —  is  a  chance  to  express  his 
personality  within  the  limits  of  a  specialty  in  which 
he  knows  himself  proficient.  Even  the  scavenger  is 
not  without  his  craft-pride.  Your  carpenter  desires 
no  other  trade;  he  would  rather  build  a  hen-coop 
than  paint  his  own  dwelling;  but  inside  his  trade  he 
wants  a  bit  of  leeway  to  devise  ways  and  means,  and 
a  living  hope  of  quiet  adventure.  Not  enough  variety 
to  upset  him,  but  enough  to  stimulate  the  exercise  of 
his  full  powers  in  security  —  such  is  the  common 
man's  ideal  job. 

Variety  in  minors  compensates  for  the  major 
monotony.  In  the  beginning,  and  for  aeons  thereafter, 
when  Man,  in  an  environment  niggardly  in  food  and 
crowded  with  dangers,  was  "getting  set"  in  build  and 
character,  labor  —  the  price  of  life  —  must  have  been 
a  constant  succession  of  adventures.  Merely  keeping 
alive  involved  prowling  and  stalking,  sally,  pounce, 
battle,  flight.  Power  to  put  all  into  a  single  effort 
determined  whether  one  returned  to  the  home-lair  or 
died  miserably  on  the  heath. 

Little  by  little,  to  satisfy  accumulating  economic 
wants  and  social  ambitions,  Man  tied  himself  down 
to  occupations  more  prosaic  —  to  agriculture,  to  the 
tedious  shaping  of  tools  from  stone,  and  the  applica- 
tion of  manual  skill  and  fire  to  earth-materials. 
Ability  to  withstand  monotony  then  acquired  sur- 


THE     IRON     MAN  49 

vival  value ;  but  there  continued  that  zest  for  variety 
inside  the  frame  of  monotony,  that  desire  to  project  his 
unique  self  upon  his  environment. 

From  the  projection  of  these  individualities  upon 
matter  through  toil  followed  many  of  the  subsequent 
changes  in  Man's  estate.  Simple  tools,  now  standard- 
ized, must  have  measured  the  individuality  of  their 
originators  and  adapters,  just  as  innovations  in  mod- 
ern mechanics  publish  to  a  critical  world  the  personal 
triumphs  of  those  who  dare  to  originate.  The  more 
play  we  allow  this  instinct  for  variation,  the  swifter 
economic  evolution  must  be;  and,  conversely,  when 
it  has  no  play,  innovation  ceases.  Civilization,  on 
its  material  side,  has  been  built  little  by  little,  through 
trial  and  error  rather  than  design  —  by  the  personal 
energies  of  the  world's  artificers  and  organizers  rather 
than  by  the  plans  of  its  statesmen. 

Monotony  in  labor,  then,  is  the  price  men  pay  for 
living  together  in  order  and  security  —  one  of  the 
returns  that  society  exacts  from  the  individual  in 
exchange  for  safety,  comfort,  and  opportunity  for 
advancement  within  the  group.  But  monotony  in- 
tensifies labor-strain;  and  unless  the  laborer  can  find 
release  therefrom,  through  variations  of  physical  and 
mental  effort  in  the  minutiae  of  the  job,  his  weariness 
sits  upon  him  like  an  incubus. 

Let  him  do  this  thing  a  little  differently  from  that; 
let  him  use  what  ingenuity  he  has;  and  his  Ego,  some- 
what different  from  all  others  under  the  sun,  is  com- 
pensated in  a  degree  for  the  surrender  of  his  freedom 
in  the  larger  concerns  of  group-living,  which  sur- 


50  THE     IRON     MAN 

render  society  demands  and  enforces  through  law 
and  custom. 

But,  lacking  this  compensation  of  variety  in  toil, 
human  nature  finds  the  social  order  oppressive.  This 
seems  to  me  at  least  as  definite  a  cause  of  the  present 
resentment  against  the  established  order  as  those 
more  frequently  cited;  and  the  situation  is  not  alto- 
gether relieved  by  reflecting  that,  as  long  as  the  in- 
stinct toward  variation  is  repressed  by  the  machines 
themselves,  its  consequences  will  continue  in  some 
measure  as  long  as  machines  are  operated,  no  matter 
whether  they  are  owned  by  private  persons  or  by  the 
state. 

How  long  may  a  person's  innovating  tendencies  be 
repressed  without  dulling  his  mind?  Suppose  our 
first-rate  carpenter  undertook  a  two-year  stint  laying 
identical  floors  in  identical  one-story  houses.  Would 
he  be  as  good  an  all-round  craftsman,  as  good  a  stair- 
builder  and  root-builder,  at  the  end  of  his  grind?  Ob- 
viously not.  He  might  grow  more  deft  in  what  he  had 
to  do;  but  surely  he  would  grow  more  clumsy  in  what 
he  had  no  chance  to  do.  He  would  emerge  from  that 
job  less  efficient  for  the  all-round  work  of  the  com- 
munity, less  sure  of  himself,  less  secure  in  his  home 
and  his  living,  less  interesting  as  a  personality  and 
less  valuable  as  a  neighbor  and  citizen.  To  what  ex- 
tent this  decline  in  the  individual  might  affect  his 
descendants,  and  through  them  the  race,  is  an  in- 
teresting question  reserved  for  future  discussion. 
Here  the  influence  of  automatic  machinery  upon  the 
mind  of  those  who  come  into  close  and  continued 


THE     IRON     MAN  51 

contact  with  it  is  considered  only  with  relation  to  the 
present  actors  immediately  involved,  without  refer- 
ence to  the  extension  of  that  influence  through  hered- 
ity and  race-evolution. 

This  devolution  of  the  individual  is  what  Secretary 
Hoover  notes  when  he  says:  "The  vast,  repetitive 
processes  are  dulling  the  human  mind."  And  again: 
"We  must  take  account  of  the  tendencies  of  our 
present  repetitive  industries  to  eliminate  the  creative 
instinct  in  their  workers,  to  narrow  their  fields  of 
craftsmanship,  to  discard  entirely  the  contributions 
that  could  be  had  from  their  minds  as  well  as  from 
their  hands.  Indeed,  if  we  are  to  secure  the  develop- 
ment of  our  people,  we  cannot  permit  the  dulling  of 
these  sensibilities." 

So  far  as  the  great  majority  of  the  workers  are  con- 
cerned, modern  industry  presents  this  phenomenon  — 
the  dulling  of  the  mind  —  on  a  scale  unequaled  in 
extent,  and  to  a  degree  unequaled  in  intensity,  by 
anything  on  record  in  history.  Slavery  of  the  galley 
was  not  more  uninspiring,  per  se.  Military  orders 
may  be  more  imperious  than  those  of  industry;  but 
at  least  the  military  life  provides  change  of  scene  and 
problem  from  time  to  time,  some  release  from  routine 
on  pay,  much  companionship,  and  occasional  thrills 
—  all  appealing  to  the  common  man  because  they  fit 
in  so  neatly  with  the  inherited  memories  lying  at  the 
back  of  his  mind.  Industrial  efficiency  calls  for  the 
elimination  of  many  of  these  boons  —  for  close  con- 
centration upon  the  unvarying  task,  for  suppression 
of  variations  in  toil,  for  rigid  control  of  the  work- 


52  THE    IRON    MAN 

environment,  for  elimination  of  distracting  excite- 
ments, for  subordination  of  personalities,  for  the  re- 
duction of  the  common  man  to  the  status  of  autom- 
aton. 

Who  is  this  common  man?  He  is  the  fellow  who 
made  up  the  ranks  of  the  army  as  examined  for  the 
draft  —  an  adult  male  —  with  an  intelligence,  by 
test,  of  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years.  He  is  a  de- 
pendable being  on  the  average,  capable  of  taking  care 
of  himself  and  his  family  in  ordinary  times  and  not 
too  complicated  situations;  fairly  adaptable;  amen- 
able to  law  and  social  usages ;  requiring  and  accepting 
leadership  in  all  pursuits  calling  for  special  knowledge 
or  quick  decision ;  fundamentally  loyal  to  his  country 
and  its  institutions;  inherently  conservative  and  pro- 
vincial; shaking  down  after  the  first  flush  of  youth 
into  a  steady,  plodding  citizen,  more  prone  to  excite- 
ment over  little  things  than  to  thought  over  funda- 
mentals; strongly  sexed,  but  controlling  his  sex-calls 
more  or  less  successfully  with  the  aid  of  church  and 
state,  of  which  institutions  he  is  ever  the  pillar  and 
support.  Not  a  complete  portrait,  but  'twill  serve! 

This  is  he  who,  in  the  main,  mans  industry;  and 
upon  whom  modern  industry  grinds.  It  grinds  less 
upon  those  definitely  above  or  below  this  level.  More 
effective,  more  adaptable  persons,  keen  in  devising, 
sage  in  planning,  and  strong  in  pushing  men  and  ma- 
terials into  action  —  these  find  in  industry  broad  and 
lucrative  outlets  for  their  relatively  stronger  instincts 
toward  dominance.  Industry  gives  them  opportu- 
nity to  express  their  egos  in  great  works,  to  lead,  to 


THEIRONMAN  53 

build,  to  amass,  to  commandeer  social  recognition 
through  the  exercise  of  economic  power.  Men  of  this 
sort  find  capital,  invent  machines,  improve  processes, 
route  materials,  organize  shops,  produce  goods  in 
quantity,  and  sell  them  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Their 
methods  are  direct,  often  ruthless;  their  code  an  odd 
mixture  of  jungle  law  and  altruism.  No  danger  of 
repetitive  processes  and  automatic  machinery  dulling 
these  high-powered  minds ;  on  the  contrary,  these  are 
as  manna  to  their  hungry  souls.  By  reducing  room 
for  error  in  operations,  by  contracting  the  play  of 
human  fallibility  in  toil,  by  increasing  man-power, 
the  Iron  Man  has  freed  business  of  important  limita- 
tions, relieving  enterprisers  of  what  were  once  serious 
difficulties. 

But  the  slack  so  gained  is  more  apparent  than  real. 
Competition,  never  resting,  drives  them  on  ever  and 
ever  to  more  refined  machines,  better  coordination  of 
effort;  and  presently  they  find  in  social  unrest,  plant 
obsolescence,  high  labor- turnover,  and  lowered  morale, 
that  they  have  merely  substituted  one  sort  of  execu- 
tive vexation  for  another.  In  the  old  days  of  more 
skill  and  less  machines,  the  executive  problem  was  to 
master  materials;  now  the  executive  problem  is  to  a 
much  greater  degree  the  handling  of  men. 

Neither  does  the  Iron  Man  get  on  the  nerves  of 
those  below  the  average  mentality.  He  is  a  consistent 
friend  of  the  defective.  Just  as  deafness  is  an  ad- 
vantage in  certain  industrial  occupations,  —  our 
shops  employ  many  mutes  with  satisfaction  both 
ways,  —  so  mental  lacks  may  become  assets  for  cer- 


54  THE     IRON     MAN 

tain  industrial  purposes.  Given  enough  sense  to 
master  simple  routine  occupations,  and  enough  ap- 
preciation of  duty,  or  fear  of  relatives,  to  come  to  the 
shop  regularly,  the  below-average  person  can  soon  be 
adjusted  industrially.  And,  when  adjusted,  the 
moron  will  be  found  immune  to  many  of  the  pricks 
which  irritate  the  normal  man  into  seeing  red,  less 
fretted  by  monotony,  less  worn  by  rhythmic  clatter. 
There  is  less  in  his  soul  striving  to  release  itself;  he 
has  brought  into  the  shop  comparatively  little  that 
the  shop  cannot  use;  and  so  he  accepts  dumbly  his 
appointed  place  in  the  scheme  of  things  industrial, 
remains  unbitten  by  ambition,  and  reacts  not  at  all 
against  subordination.  The  less  mind  one  has,  the 
less  it  resents  that  invasion  of  personality  which  is 
inseparable  from  large-scale  and  mechanized  enter- 
prises. I  have  heard  industrial  engineers  and  welfare 
workers  say  that  industrial  efficiency,  as  working  out 
in  our  day,  puts  a  premium  on  mental  deficiency. 

Men  who  take  more  to  the  machines  than  do 
the  morons  are  subjected  to  a  rigid  selective  process 
by  the  Iron  Man.  The  law  of  "use  or  lose"  begins 
its  inexorable  operation  upon  their  minds  as  well  as 
upon  their  muscles  and  nerves.  Just  as  muscle  or 
nerve,  unused,  refuses  to  yield  its  utility  without  a 
struggle,  causing  its  possessor  pain  and  inconvenience, 
so  those  mental  qualities  unused  in  toil  continue  to 
struggle  for  existence  to  the  limit  of  their  strength.  It 
is  easy  to  find  in  any  industrial  town  the  shop-sick 
man  —  upset,  out  of  sorts,  doubtful  if  he  can  stick  it 
out.  *  The  man  is  out  of  harmony  with  himself;  his 


THE    IRON     MAN  55 

mind  is  divided  against  itself.  The  weaker  the  Ego 
at  the  start,  the  shorter  the  struggle,  and  the  more 
quickly  does  the  individual  become  "shop-broke." 
Some  refuse  to  wait  so  long,  and  get  out,  either  fired 
for  insubordination,  which  is  more  often  an  attack  of 
"nerves"  than  meanness,  or  going  out  voluntarily  to 
search  for  jobs  more  to  their  liking.  Sometimes  they 
merely  shift  from  one  shop  to  another ;  every  factory 
town  has  its  disappointed  rainbow-chasers,  who  never 
stay  put,  and  who  never  learn  that  the  Iron  Man  is 
about  the  same  everywhere.  Many,  however,  drift 
back  to  the  farm  and  other  less  mechanized  occupa- 
tions. 

Labor- turnover  is  heavy;  that  is  where  this  labor- 
strain  shows  in  the  shop  records.  The  workman  and  his 
boss  may  adjust,  in  one  way  or  another,  disputes  on 
wages  and  shop-conditions;  but  of  necessity  they 
have  difficulty  in  treating  this  intangible,  indefinite, 
not  always  recognized,  or  recognizable,  work-neurosis 
arising  from  the  cleavage  between  old  and  new,  be- 
tween the  innovation  —  the  Iron  Man  —  and  that 
ancient  inheritance  of  the  human  —  the  mind.  So 
one  man  goes,  and  another,  and  another ;  their  several 
departures,  listed  together,  become  evidence  of  so 
many  loss-items  to  the  shop.  The  expense  of  breaking 
in  a  single  novice  may  be  small ;  but  multiplied  many 
times,  it  becomes  something  to  reckon  with  in  quan- 
tity, and  a  definite  economic  back-lash.  Moreover, 
the  departure  of  even  a  single  cog  in  the  synchronized 
process  of  production,  where  many  await  the  output 
of  one  machine,  may  delay  production,  at  a  cost  far 


56  THEIRONMAN 

in  excess  of  the  direct  expense  of  substituting  the 
human  factor.  Let  a  key-machine  be  idle  even  a  few 
hours,  and  bang  goes  far  more  than  sixpence! 

So  the  leaders  of  industry  are  forced,  from  strictly 
economic  motives,  to  consider  the  psychological  as- 
pects of  toil.  The  remedies  they  apply  are  of  infinite 
variety, —  shifting  men  from  one  job  to  another  as  an 
antidote  for  monotony  and  a  cure  for  maladjustments; 
more  rigid  selection  in  employment,  with  growing 
emphasis  on  the  mental  as  well  as  physical  fitness  of 
the  novices  for  the  jobs  open;  welfare- work  in  all  its 
phases ;  housing  developments,  grievance  committees, 
shop-councils,  employee  representation,  bonus  and 
profit-sharing  plans, —  all  aimed  at  relieving  in  one 
way  or  another,  either  directly  or  by  distraction  of 
interest,  the  nerve-tension  under  which  the  average 
man  suffers  when  he  is  brought  into  double  harness 
with  the  Iron  Man. 

However,  the  best  friend  of  both  man  and  master, 
in  this  connection,  is  habit  —  simple,  old-fashioned 
habit.  If  one  does  the  same  thing  over  and  over, 
action  tends  to  become  automatic.  Attention  may 
be  trained  through  use,  even  to  the  point  where  the 
tender  of  the  machine  may  do  his  work  accurately 
without  undue  strain,  while  his  mind  busies  itself 
elsewhere.  The  strain  increases,  of  course,  as  the 
work  is  prolonged;  but  given  reasonable  time-limits, 
there  is  ground  to  believe  that  a  man,  thoroughly 
shopbroken  and  well  adjusted  to  his  job,  may  get  a 
good  deal  of  pleasure  from  this  autistic  thinking 
while  at  work.  But  autistic  thinking  may  be  painful 


THEIRONMAN  57 

as  well  as  pleasurable.  The  day-dreaming  of  a  well- 
balanced,  not  too  highly  organized  mind,  at  peace  with 
itself  and  with  the  world,  is  one  thing;  the  fretting  of 
a  mind  under  worry  or  injustice  is  quite  another. 

If  we  conceive  habit  to  be  a  barrier  behind  which 
the  mind  may  shelter  itself  against  fatigue,  then  we 
may  say  that  the  assaulting  force  must  succeed,  if 
the  work-period  be  stretched  unduly;  and,  moreover, 
that  it  will  carry  the  habit-barrier  much  sooner  than 
that,  if  the  mental  forces  behind  the  barrier  are  dis- 
cordant and  undisciplined.  Consequently,  the  con- 
structive effort  to  harmonize  automatic  machinery 
and  mental  health  must  take  a  threefold  path :  first, 
to  select  individuals  carefully  for  given  jobs;  second, 
to  adjust  both  pace  and  hours  to  the  individual's 
powers  of  resisting  fatigue ;  and,  third,  to  hasten  such 
changes  in  the  shop,  home,  and  community  as  will 
tend  to  content  the  common  man  with  his  lot,  reduce 
his  worry  and  envy,  and  increase  his  delight  in  life. 

At  the  automatic  machine  a  man  must  stew,  men- 
tally, in  his  own  juice;  in  so  far  as  he  thinks  at  all,  his 
thought  must  range  away  from  his  task.  If  he  fears 
dismissal,  if  he  thinks  of  himself  as  bested  by  un- 
known forces  or  cheated  by  individuals,  if  he  finds 
himself  and  his  home  the  playthings  of  tragedy  or 
the  butts  of  injustice,  then  his  autistic  thought  is 
bound  to  be  subversive.  One  sort  of  man  becomes 
melancholy ;  another  rages  against  things  as  they  are. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  whose  life  is  even  and  sustained 
by  faith,  he  whose  memories  and  prospects  are  alike 
pleasurable,  has  time  inside  the  task  to  plan  his  holiday, 


58  THEIRONMAN 

turn  over  again  the  delights  of  last  week,  and  settle  the 
small  but  inspiring  problems  of  his  home  and  garden. 

To  put  the  machine  operative  into  this  frame  of 
mind,  where  he  is  insulated  more  or  less  against  the 
early  coming  and  more  devastating  inroads  of  patho- 
logical fatigue,  must  ever  be  a  first  concern  of  in- 
dustrial society,  as  well  as  of  the  shop  which  profits 
by  his  content.  The  state  must  do  its  bit  by  seeing 
that  he  gets  full  measure  of  justice;  the  community, 
by  providing  facilities  for  mental  and  physical  recrea- 
tion; and  the  shop,  by  internal  adjustments  calculated 
to  increase  the  worker's  confidence  in  the  security  of 
his  job  and  his  sense  of  cooperation  in  the  enterprise. 

All  important,  also,  is  the  cultivation  of  self-dis- 
cipline in  the  individual.  Much  restlessness  arises 
from  envy,  lack  of  disposition  to  make  the  best  of 
things  until  better  appears,  and  failure  to  train  the 
emotions  toward  cheerfulness.  Mental  hygiene  in 
home  and  school  is  a  positive  need  for  a  rising  genera- 
tion destined  so  largely  to  associate  with  machines 
and  cooperate  in  large-scale  enterprises. 

How  the  emotions  may  be  schooled  is  set  forth 
briefly  in  Dr.  C.  B.  Burr's  trenchant  little  book, 
"  Practical  Psychology  and  Psychiatry,"  now  in  its 
fifth  edition  — a  mine  of  wisdom!  '  The  relation  of 
emotion  in  the  abstract  to  muscular  expression  is 
profitable  for  study,"  says  Dr.  Burr,  "not  only  be- 
cause of  its  psychological  interest,  but  because  of  its 
practical  bearing  upon  human  conduct.  Clench  the 
fist  and  shut  the  teeth  firmly,  and  there  immediately 
arises  in  consciousness  a  sense  of  resentment,  of  pug- 


THEIRONMAN  59 

nacity.  Draw  down  the  corners  of  the  mouth,  and  the 
emotional  tone  takes  on  a  shade  of  depression.  This 
has  an  important  relation  to  mental  development.  To 
cultivate  the  muscular  play  that  accompanies  pleas- 
urable states  of  feeling  must  inevitably  affect  the 
disposition  of  the  individual  in  a  favorable  manner." 
Thus,  he  who  does  the  necessary  with  a  show  of 
willingness  finds,  before  the  task  is  done,  that  he  is 
truly  willing  its  accomplishment. 

"Be  good  and  you'll  be  happy"  is  a  precept  of 
practical  religion.  "Make  good  or  you'll  be  miser- 
able" is  a  precept  of  business  which  seems  to  have 
crowded  the  older  ideal  out  of  public  education,  and 
to  have  jostled  it  sadly,  even  in  the  home.  An  educa- 
tional system  overemphasizing  efficiency  must  needs 
wreck  itself  in  time,  because  there  can  never  be  quite 
enough  of  the  good  things  of  life  at  hand  to  satisfy  all. 
A  homely  philosophy  of  give-and-take,  a  gospel  of 
endurance  as  contrasted  with  acquisition,  the  truth 
that  life's  best  values  are  spiritual  rather  than  econ- 
omic —  these  the  school  should  teach,  no  less  than 
the  home,  to  young  folk  who  presently  shall  take 
their  places  beside  the  machines  in  industrial  routine. 

Yet  such  preparation  will  not  be  sufficient  of  itself. 
As  those  once  more  potent  ideals  of  contentment  in 
toil  have  been  pushed  aside  so  strenuously  by  in- 
dustrialism, so  also  they  cannot  be  rehabilitated  in 
any  compelling  measure  until  the  industrial  status  quo 
is  modified  by  state,  community,  and  shop,  in  such 
wise  that  training  for  contentment  may  withstand 
the  attrition  of  work-relations  in  adult  years.  As 


60  THE     IRON     MAN 

long  as  life  reneges  on  promises  made  to  youth  that 
joy,  honor,  and  abundance  shall  reward  toil,  sobriety, 
and  loyalty,  it  is  idle  to  expect  any  generation  of 
American  factory-hands  to  bear  stoically  their  par- 
ticipation in  industry. 

However  successful  these  efforts  may  be,  there  is 
likely  to  remain  an  unavoidable  residuum  of  labor- 
strain.  This,  spread  as  it  is  over  the  mass,  filters 
down  upon  home  and  state,  generating  social  prob- 
lems which,  in  a  democracy,  shortly  become  political. 
In  our  average  man,  as  we  have  seen,  the  will  to  sur- 
vive is  more  potent  than  the  will  to  power;  security 
means  more  to  him  than  opportunity;  he  is  static 
rather  than  dynamic;  and  the  state  is  the  highest 
expression  of  his  dominant  ideal  —  to  live  comfort- 
ably under  conditions  in  which  he  can  be  true  to  his 
not-too-demanding  nature.  To  the  state,  therefore, 
the  man  of  the  masses  gives,  as  clearly  as  he  can,  his 
mandate.  First,  labor-strain  rouses  thought,  then 
speech,  then  writings  in  the  press,  then  debates  in 
parliament,  then  —  if  checkmated  all  along  the  line 
—  in  mobs  and  armies.  The  politician  with  his  ear  to 
the  ground  serves  this  function,  at  least  —  he  gets  the 
case  of  the  plebs  before  the  state.  Ensues  then  a  new 
phase  of  the  old,  old  duel  between  the  state  and  the 
captains  —  going  forward  in  our  day  as  the  state 
versus  its  legal  children,  the  Corporations,  in  which 
the  captains,  for  greater  power  and  profit,  group 
themselves. 

One  finds  in  the  current  phase  of  this  contest  small 
promise  that  the  state,  by  legal  processes,  can  relieve 


THEIRONMAN  61 

the  common  man  from  the  labor-strains  incident  to 
automatic  production.  It  may  relieve  his  feelings 
temporarily,  with  restrictions  that  are  more  noise  than 
substance;  he  may  draw  some  comfort  from  seeing 
the  state  crack  its  long  whip  over  the  boss;  but  po- 
litical coercion  has  its  limits,  both  economic  and 
constitutional.  Regulation  toward  fair  play  in  in- 
dustry is  right  and  proper,  but  may  so  easily  be  over- 
done that  the  state's  most  telling  contribution  to  the 
mental  hygiene  of  industry  may  be  considered  that 
of  education  —  the  marshaling  of  the  public  schools 
for  the  teaching  of  contentment  in  toil  and  culture  in 
leisure. 

Because  mind  must  be  cured  by  mind,  or  stay  sick, 
because  human  maladjustments  yield  only  to  the 
human  touch,  the  mental  phase  of  the  problem  of 
automatization  in  industry  challenges  particularly 
the  community  and  the  shop ;  to  them  we  must  look 
for  the  chief  ameliorating  influences  which  shall  per- 
mit the  common  man  to  withstand,  without  deteriora- 
tion of  mind,  association  with  the  Iron  Man.  And 
because  the  man  at  the  desk  moves  more  swiftly  than 
the  folk  in  the  town-meeting,  the  shop  may  well 
become  the  more  effective  of  the  two.  Once  manage- 
ment grasps  clearly  the  situation  created  by  the 
grinding  of  the  automatic  machine  upon  the  mind  of 
the  worker,  the  challenge  to  proximate  service  and 
ultimate  interest  can  not  but  inspire  the  directing 
intelligences  of  American  industry.  Their  hegemony, 
indeed,  depends  upon  their  leaping  into  this  breach 
without  delay. 


IV 
THE   I  RON   DUKES 

THE  more  monotonous  the  plain,  the  more  impres- 
sive are  the  peaks.  As  the  development  and  grow- 
ing use  of  machinery  reduce,  little  by  little,  the  play  of 
personality  in  toil  for  the  masses  who  work  beside  it, 
those  who  rise  above  its  leveling  influences  take  on 
increased  social  significance,  As  labor  becomes  more 
and  more  impersonal,  as  labor-time  crowds  out  skill 
and  initiative  as  the  chief  economic  determinant  of 
the  mass,  those  who  can  take  advantage  of  this  situa- 
tion to  employ  or  direct  large  numbers  of  individuals 
stand  out  as  marked  men.  They  are  the  stars  of  the 
industrial  drama.  Upon  them  the  limelight  beats; 
upon  them  are  showered  applause  and  riches  in  such 
profusion  as  to  rouse  the  envy  of  the  chorus.  For 
them,  too,  are  the  hisses  sometimes  heard  in  the  pit, 
and  occasional  missiles  launched  in  wrath. 

Ability  heads  toward  power.  When  the  big  busi- 
ness of  the  country  was  the  establishing,  organizing, 
and  defending  of  the  state,  supremely  able  men  turned 
their  talents  toward  statecraft,  just  as,  in  former 
times  and  older  lands,  they  went  into  the  church 
when  religion  was  esteemed  the  path  toward  greatest 
influence.  When  the  political  stability  of  this  Re- 
public had  been  achieved,  America's  ablest  organizers 
were  attracted,  naturally,  to  the  prospect  of  power  at- 
tainable through  exploiting  the  natural  resources  of  an 
undeveloped  continent.  Their  imaginations  fired, 
they  went  overseas  for  capital,  built  railroads,  razed 


THE    IRON     MAN  63 

forests,  made  goods,  and  improved  methods  of  mar- 
keting. 

Desire  to  win  subsistence  and  make  the  futures  of 
themselves  and  their  families  secure  may  have  been 
the  tap-root  of  these  undertakings;  but  there  were 
sturdy  brace-roots  as  well  —  the  urge  to  build,  to  cre- 
ate, to  coordinate ;  the  will  to  power,  to  prominence, 
to  dominance.  Even  the  roughest  of  these  economic 
adventurers  could  scarcely  escape  being  stirred  some- 
what by  the  thought  that  what  he  was  doing  was  of 
service  to  his  fellows,  and  would  continue  to  be  of 
service  long  after  he  himself  had  vanished  from  the 
stormy  scene.  He  and  his  kind  must  have  been  sus- 
tained, at  many  points  in  their  none  too  easy  lives,  by 
that  faith  seldom  put  into  words.  Less  glib,  surely, 
than  our  generation  in  talking  "service,"  such  men 
served  posterity  as  well  as  themselves  and  their 
legatees. 

We  see  now  that  men  like  Stephenson  and  Hill, 
Maudslay  and  McCormick,  Bessemer  and  Carnegie, 
made  something  more  than  money  by  harnessing  nat- 
ural forces,  perfecting  machines,  and  organizing  men 
and  capital  into  effective  combinations  for  laying  rails, 
running  trains,  fabricating  steel,  and  selling  reapers. 
They  pioneered  for  civilization.  While  some  of  them 
gathered  vast  fortunes  for  themselves  and  their  heirs, 
each  did  his  bit  toward  lifting  the  economic  level  for 
whole  groups  and  sections,  enriched  and  extended 
his  country,  and  gave  life  in  such  abundance  that 
the  population  of  the  earth  doubled  within  a  single 
century  of  industrial  control.  We  know  that  these 


64  THEIRONMAN 

men,  and  thousands  of  other  leaders  in  the  economic 
development  of  the  Western  world,  possessed  high 
survival  value.  Their  works  live;  their  contributions 
are  still  being  used;  they  released  certain  energies  of 
nature  and  man,  never  again  to  be  prisoned ;  and  all 
of  us  are  distinctly  their  heirs  and  debtors.  Indeed,  a 
good  half  of  us  could  not  find  a  living,  a  foothold  on 
earth,  but  for  them  and  their  kind. 

Individual  achievements  broaden  down  in  time  to 
social  assets.  The  mass  inherits  what  the  class  creates, 
whereupon  the  class  carries  on  to  a  new  objective. 
The  process  is  seen  clearly  enough  in  the  case  of  the 
railroads.  The  state  is  now  the  overlord,  and  masses 
of  small  holders  are  the  owners,  of  railroads  which 
dominant  individuals  built,  because  the  state  would 
not  accept  responsibility  for  construction.  The  state 
chose- — and  the  common  sense  of  the  time  approved— 
to  let  private  persons  adventure  in  providing  steam 
transportation.  The  common  sense  of  our  time  ap- 
proves payment  of  rental  to  those  who  have  come  into 
possession  of  those  holdings ;  but  it  still  refuses  to  take 
the  risk  of  operation,  while  determined  to  hold  the 
rewards  of  operation  down  to  fixed  limits  by  rate- 
control. 

In  the  railroad-building  era,  enterprising  youth  and 
far-visioned  men  went  to  the  rails  as  deer  to  the  salt- 
licks —  because  it  was  their  nature  so  to  do.  No  calm 
process  of  reasoning  directed  their  choice  of  life-work. 
They  plunged  into  that  "game"  instinctively,  because 
it  seemed  the  most  worth-while  of  all  pursuits,  the 
field  in  which  a  man  could  most  nearly  realize  all  that 


THEIRONMAN  65 

was  in  him.  Men  of  the  same  sort  plunged,  in  a  later 
generation,  into  electric  transportation  —  first  urban, 
then  interurban.  In  the  last  twenty  years  many  of 
them  have  gone  into  industry,  into  what  we  call  inter- 
changeable manufacturing,  but  which  the  Germans, 
with  their  penchant  for  verbal  exactness,  call  "Me- 
chanofabrik  "  —  the  quantity  production  of  standard- 
ized goods  on  power-driven  machines,  and  the  dis- 
tribution thereof  over  wide  areas.  And  latterly, 
when  it  became  apparent  that  the  financing  of  quan- 
tity production  and  wide  distribution  was  a  function 
so  important  to  society  that  it  returned  both  profits 
and  power,  such  went  into  banking  also.  Indeed, 
industry  could  scarcely  have  reached  its  present  pro- 
portions if  banks  and  bankers  had  not  grown  with  it. 

The  reasons  for  the  shifting  of  our  self-appointed 
captains — -our  ablest  practical-minded  citizens  — 
from  statecraft,  through  transportation,  to  industry 
are  not  far  to  seek.  The  state  not  only  had  been  se- 
curely founded,  but  also  had  grown  strong  enough  to 
inject  itself  firmly  —  through  federal,  state  and  local 
governments — into  the  business  equation  as  a  regula- 
tory force. 

The  will  to  power  always  mates  ill  with  state  con- 
trol. The  transportation  field  had  been  pioneered, 
opportunity  for  profitable  adventuring  in  that  line 
reduced ;  but  thereby  ways  and  means  had  been  cre- 
ated to  distribute  goods  widely  and  swiftly.  Popula- 
tion had  increased,  and  the  standard  of  living  risen. 
In  other  words,  a  broad  and  absorbent  market  existed, 
into  which  cheap  goods  could  be  poured  at  a  profit. 


66  THE     IRON     MAN 

The  incentive,  consequently,  was  present,  to  apply  as 
swiftly  as  might  be  the  idea  of  skill-transference  to 
machines,  "so  that  unskilled  workmen,"  to  quote 
Roe,  "might  be  made  to  produce  the  same  results  as 
skilled  labor."  This  shift  of  vital  function  from  the 
worker  to  the  tool  inevitably  engaged  the  attention  of 
men  keen  to  exercise  the  realities  of  power,  since  it 
enabled  larger  numbers  and  more  capital  to  be  con- 
centrated, organized,  and  commanded  by  a  single  di- 
recting mind. 

Though  automatic  machinery  had  to  await  the 
market  for  its  goods  before  becoming  common  enough 
to  gain  marked  social  significance,  which  occurred  co- 
incidentally  with  the  slowing-up  of  railroad-building 
in  the  eighteen-eighties,  the  idea  of  skill-transference 
appears  far  earlier,  and  was  applied  here  and  there. 
Sir  Samuel  Ben  tham,  brother  of  Jeremy,  faced  with  the 
problem  of  building  and  outfitting  ships  on  the  Black 
Sea,  for  Catherine  the  Great  of  Russia,  in  a  terri- 
tory containing  few  skilled  artisans,  practised  "skill- 
transference,"  with  some  success,  as  early  as  1787. 
Back  in  England,  with  the  help  of  Brunei  and  Mauds- 
lay,  he  later  applied  it  on  a  large  scale,  in  a  new  fac- 
tory for  the  interchangeable  manufacture  of  ship- 
blocks  at  Portsmouth  (1808). 

Meanwhile,  Eli  Whitney,  at  New  Haven,  was 
equally  alert.  Seeking  a  small-arms  contract  in  1812, 
Whitney  wrote  to  Washington  of  his  plant,  that  "its 
great  leading  object  is  to  substitute  correct  and  effec- 
tive operations  of  machinery  for  that  skill  of  the  artist 
which  is  acquired  only  by  long  practice  and  expe- 


THE     IRON     MAN  67 

rience,  a  species  of  skill  which  is  not  possessed  in  this 
country  to  any  appreciable  extent."  Those  who 
would  delve  further  into  the  hazy  beginnings  of  the 
Machine  Age  are  referred  to  J.  W.  Roe's  "English 
and  American  Tool-Builders,"  an  excellent  piece  of 
research  in  a  supremely  important  field. 

That  olden,  far-off  note  of  enthusiasm  for  the  ma- 
chine-escape from  human  ineptness  was  sounded 
again,  after  more  than  a  century,  by  Karl  W.  Zimmer- 
scheid,  Vice- President  of  the  General  Motors  Com- 
pany, in  these  words: — 

11  The  most  potent  single  factor  in  the  brilliant  rise 
of  the  mechanical  industry  in  America  is  the  almost 
universal  adoption  of  the  principles  of  interchangeable 
manufacture.  There  are  underlying  economic  reasons 
for  the  opportunities  which  have  arisen  continually 
before  us;  but  no  nation  with  so  few  skilled  mechanics 
as  ours  ever  would  have  taken  advantage  of  those  op- 
portunities so  adequately,  without  possessing  the 
genius  to  conceive  the  idea  of  assembling  things  from 
parts  wholly  produced  by  automatic  machinery ;  nor 
could  even  such  genius  have  brought  success,  had  the 
final  conception  failed  to  include  the  masterly  yet 
simple  provision  that  all  such  automatically  produced 
parts  should  be  so  alike  as  to  be  perfectly  interchange- 
able from  one  assembly  to  another.  Given  this  sys- 
tem in  its  present  stage  of  development,  problems  of 
vast  quantity  production  at  remarkably  low  costs,  of 
easy  and  rapid  assembly,  and  of  inexpensive  mainte- 
nance, become  fascinating  play.  The  seeming  miracles 
of  such  intricate,  though  widespread,  products  as  the 


68  THE     IRON     MAN 

sewing  machine,  the  harvester,  the  dollar  watch,  the 
talking  machine,  and  the  automobile,  become  but  the 
obvious  fruits  of  a  natural  evolution." 

This  may  be  fascinating  play  for  the  directing 
minds,  but  it  is  the  reverse  of  fascinating  for  those  who 
operate  the  machines;  and  hard,  solid  work,  not  play, 
for  the  social  workers  and  statesmen  who  somehow 
must  ameliorate  the  effects  of  the  Iron  Man,  lest  the 
race  degenerate,  society  collapse,  and  the  twin  pillars 
of  the  modern  state  —  constitutionalism  and  private 
property  —  be  torn  asunder.  Scarcely,  either,  are 
those  financiers  enthusiastic  who  must  wrestle  with 
the  credit  problems  arising  from  over-production  or 
under-consumption — whichever  you  choose  to  saddle 
with  responsibility  for  the  post-war  glut  of  goods 
turned  out  under  direction  of  our  fascinated,  almost 
hypnotized,  players  in  the  game  of  business. 

It  is  the  pleasant  habit  of  biographers,  presenting 
successful  men  to  the  public  gaze,  to  emphasize  the 
superior  ratiocination  of  their  subjects.  A  succeeded 
in  this  great  project  because  he  made  a  wise  decision 
at  a  certain  stage  in  his  career;  B,  because  of  his  per- 
sistence in  fighting  for  what  seemed  to  be  a  lost  cause, 
which  he  alone  of  all  men  knew  must  be  ultimately 
victorious.  Of  course,  we  cannot  eliminate  intellect 
altogether  as  a  source  of  strength  in  competition ;  but 
with  superiors,  as  with  the  common  run  of  folks, 
reason  usually  comes  in  to  justify  and  explain  deci- 
sions already  made  on  the  basis  of  the  emotions. 
James  J.  Hill,  for  instance,  went  into  railroading  be- 
cause he  was  a  dreamer  of  dreams ;  his  nature  reacted 


THE     IRON     MAN  69 

instinctively  to  the  challenge  of  the  broad  Dakota 
prairies.  Colt  clung  to  his  idea  of  a  pistol  with  a  re- 
volving cartridge-chamber,  when  other  men  gave 
theirs  up,  because  he  was  more  obstinate  than  they, 
not  because  he  had  better  reasoning  faculties.  The 
hero  of  W.  L.  George's  "  Caliban,"  a  capital  study  of 
the  driving  type  in  modern  industry,  is  exceedingly 
human  in  this,  that  he  is  more  emotional  than  rational. 

The  superior  mind,  of  the  sort  attracted  by  the  mill 
and  the  market-place,  soon  establishes  its  superiority 
in  an  environment  where  the  satisfaction  of  material 
wants  is  of  prime  importance  to  society.  This  domi- 
nant type  of  mind  may  be  more  difficult  to  analyze 
than  the  mediocre  mind,  but  the  difference  is  one  of 
degree  rather  than  of  kind,  since  all  men  —  and  wo- 
men, too — dominate  as  far  as  they  can.  Intellect  and 
training  are  worth  while  in  boss-ship ;  but  when  one  of 
our  chief  industrial  leaders  boasts  of  his  ignorance  of 
history,  art,  and  philosophy,  and  manages  his  com- 
mercial undertakings  well,  minus  those  backgrounds, 
we  must  agree  that  other  factors  weigh  somewhat 
heavier. 

No  analysis  of  this  type  of  mind  can  be  complete; 
but  its  high  spots  are  plain.  First,  the  universal  in- 
stinct to  dominate  is  highly  developed.  The  man  is 
the  child  of  the  lad  who  ran  around  the  corner  in  ad- 
vance of  his  mates  —  first  in  their  play,  first  in  their 
mischief,  also.  As  he  develops,  he  shows  a  determina- 
tion to  amount  to  something  out  of  the  ordinary; 
some  invisible  goad  spurs  him  on  to  efforts  which  to 
the  unambitious  average  man  seem  little  short  of 


70  THE     IRON     MAN 

superhuman.  Then  the  fellow  shows  marked  adapta- 
bility. Your  picked  man,  who  picks  himself,  has  a 
superior  elasticity.  Down  to-day,  he  is  up  to-morrow ; 
backed  into  a  corner,  he  dodges  out;  thwarted  in  one 
direction,  he  tries,  undismayed,  another  tack.  His 
eye  ever  on  the  goal,  he  twists  round  many  a  sharp 
corner  while  the  wiseacres  are  predicting  disaster.  He 
comes  quickly  to  decisions,  and  takes  prompt  advan- 
tage of  chance  developments.  Circumstance,  a  run  of 
luck,  underlying  economic  causes,  over  which  he  has 
no  control  and  which  he  perhaps  does  not  even  under- 
stand —  these  may  determine  the  extent  of  his  fortune 
and  influence;  yet  the  man  himself  must  be  credited 
with  daring  to  put  himself  in  their  path,  come  weal, 
come  woe. 

Experience  is  his  chief  school ;  but  it  is  one  in  which 
he  soaks  in  lessons  like  a  sponge.  But,  equally  im- 
portant are  his  gift  of  getting  and  holding  confidence, 
and  his  ability  to  pick  men  for  their  jobs  and  keep 
them  working  together,  in  spite  of  personal  and  pro- 
fessional jealousies.  He  must  be  at  once  a  captain,  a 
coach,  and  a  field-marshal,  dealing  with  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men,  binding  them  together  in  loyalty  to 
himself  and  the  business  group.  He  is  a  general  who 
maintains  discipline  in  his  army,  not  through  power  of 
life  or  death  and  the  prestige  of  the  state,  but  by  using 
justly  his  power  of  the  purse  and  exerting  fairly  the 
pressure  of  his  personality.  Indeed,  power  of  purse 
avails  him  only  with  the  weak;  and  it  is  the  strong  he 
must  have  with  him  to  save  his  institution  unimpaired 
in  the  daily  battle  of  the  market-place. 


THE     IRON     MAN  71 

So,  from  whatever  standpoint  you  analyze  the  men- 
tal traits  of  industrial  leaders,  you  come  round  to  the 
common-sense,  blanket  explanation  of  their  success  — 
personality;  always  a  riddle  to  read,  and  here  so  often 
electrified  by  a  mystic  current  of  uncertain  voltage; 
now  almost  dormant,  now  searingly  alive.  They  do 
because  they  are,  and  favoring  circumstances  so  re- 
inforce their  efforts  that  there  is  no  stopping  them. 
Sometimes  they  overdo,  whereupon  more  sober,  com- 
monplace men  reap  where  they  have  sown.  No 
matter,  they  have  made  their  contribution. 

In  our  days  these  men  exert  immense  power.  One 
such  may  hold  power  of  the  purse  over  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  workers  and  their  dependents.  Within 
limits  set  by  economics  on  one  hand  and  law  on  the 
other,  he  influences  their  standard  of  living,  their 
homes,  their  diet,  the  education  of  their  children; 
whether  he  pays  high  wages  or  low,  takes  on  or  lays  off 
help,  he  influences  real-estate  values  and  the  general 
prosperity  in  many  communities,  and  through  them 
the  tax-moneys  available  for  schools,  parks,  play- 
grounds, and  other  such  compensations  for  the  social 
sacrifices  inherent  in  industrial  processes. 

Again,  within  the  limits  set  by  economic  law,  what 
he  brings  to  market  and  the  price  he  puts  upon  it 
affect  the  well-being  of  millions  of  consumers  here  and 
abroad.  One  such  man  can  change  the  character  of  a 
community  in  five  years;  transform  a  quiet  country 
village  into  an  American  Essen  in  ten ;  uproot  thou- 
sands of  farm-hands  from  their  birth-areas  and  put 
them  to  tending  machines;  educate  whole  peoples  in 


72  THE    IRON     MAN 

wants;  and,  in  short,  shift  our  world  somewhat  from 
what  it  was  economically,  socially,  politically.  Our 
earth,  with  petroleum-burning  China  on  its  breast, 
is  not  what  it  was  before  Standard  Oil  cultivated  that 
market.  From  whatever  aspect  you  look  at  them, 
these  are  the  key-men  of  the  present  generation.  With- 
out them  we  should  not  be  what  we  are. 

Every  industrial  community  knows  its  leaders. 
They  are  the  men  behind  the  pay-rolls.  If  the  big 
boss,  as  usually  happens,  is  courting  capital  in  New 
York,  or  the  state  in  Washington,  or  orders  in  the 
market-place,  or  pleasure  at  Palm  Beach,  then  his 
chief  deputy  speaks  with  the  voice  of  authority.  Main 
Street  —  the  bankers  and  business  and  professional 
men  —  knows  who's  who;  likewise  the  politicians  and 
the  press.  Of  course  the  work- folk  know;  they  feel 
the  reality  of  things  too  well  to  have  illusions  on  that 
score.  The  best  story  a  steel-town  paper  can  print  is 
the  one  that  concerns  Gary;  the  Duponts  are  now 
prime  news  in  General-Motors  towns,  where  the  name 
scarcely  had  been  heard  before  the  World  War.  Get 
the  names  of  the  men  behind  the  pay-roll  on  your 
petitions,  and  the  rest  is  easy.  Aldermen  withdraw 
their  opposition  to  public  improvements,  boards  of 
education  reverse  themselves  overnight,  at  the  sight 
of  those  puissant  signatures.  Mayors  are  not  averse 
to  consulting  with  factory  heads  on  matters  pertain- 
ing to  the  general  welfare ;  and  the  advice  they  receive, 
in  all  matters  not  affecting  the  corporate  interest  di- 
rectly, is  apt  to  be  thoroughly  sane  and  sound. 

Useless  to  pout  about  this  deference  shown  the  in- 


THE    IRON     MAN  73 

dustrial  leaders  of  the  community.  It  is  rooted  deep 
in  reality.  The  fact  is,  that  any  man  who  exercises 
such  power  over  the  community  becomes  more  than  a 
private  citizen.  He  is  a  public  man,  ipso  facto,  and  is 
treated  as  such.  He  means  as  much  to  his  town  as  the 
lord  in  his  castle  meant  to  the  mediaeval  community 
clustered  about  its  rocky  base ;  probably  more,  since  he 
is  less  the  tax-gatherer  and  more  the  cooperator. 
Through  him,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  community 
functions;  through  him  it  gets  its  goods  to  market; 
through  him  it  draws  the  wherewithal  for  upkeep, 
security,  growth.  The  masses  may  hate  their  master, 
or  feel  toward  him  admiration  akin  to  love;  but  what- 
ever their  feeling,  they  have  common  sense  enough  to 
recognize  his  mastery,  and  to  accept  his  leadership  in 
the  vital  concerns  of  communal  life. 

The  analogy  with  feudalism  can  be  carried  further 
in  the  larger  industrial  cities  where  are  many  leaders. 
Community  of  interest  and  taste  tends  to  draw  the 
industrial  leaders  together  into  a  sort  of  rough-hewn, 
dominating  oligarchy.  Like  all  oligarchies,  it  has  its 
inside  feuds;  sometimes  there  is  even  a  persistent 
rebel,  like  Ford  in  Detroit;  but  usually,  in  those  mat- 
ters in  which  industry  touches  the  community,  indus- 
trial leaders  will  be  found  presenting  a  united  front. 
This  unity  manifests  itself,  naturally  enough,  in  de- 
fending property,  combating  "agitators"  and  up- 
holding law  and  order. 

But,  where  these  primary  interests  are  not  chal- 
lenged too  seriously,  the  enterprisers  frequently  orig- 
inate and  push  through  to  completion  social-reform 


74  THEIRONMAN 

measures  of  the  highest  value  to  the  people.  After 
all,  they  are  citizens,  with  vast  appetites  for  improve- 
ment, lusting  after  progress,  and  chronically  out  of 
patience  with  the  slow,  feckless  methods  of  govern- 
ment. They  are  all  for  getting  things  done,  and  not 
at  all  averse  to  standing  well  with  their  fellows.  So, 
from  a  variety  of  motives,  ranging  from  lofty  ideals  of 
service,  through  personal  vanity,  down  to  sheer  self- 
interest  in  placating  the  plebs,  they  initiate,  found, 
and  finance  all  manner  of  good  works  —  hospitals, 
charities,  clinics,  art  galleries,  symphony  orchestras, 
even  as  the  grandees  of  olden  Europe. 

The  people,  as  older  peoples  have  done,  take  these 
things  calmly,  as  a  matter  of  course,  without  dis- 
playing too  much  interest,  unless  hurried  too  fast; 
whereupon  they  react  by  voting  down  a  perfectly 
good  charter,  or  something  of  the  sort,  simply  to 
prove  that  they  do  not  like  to  be  hustled  too  briskly 
along  the  path  of  progress. 

The  leaders  of  our  greatest  corporations,  in  their 
powers,  and  their  social  significance  to  industrial  so- 
ciety, are  modern  counterparts  of  the  dukes  in  days 
when  dukes  had  power.  Duke,  from  dux,  from  ducere 
—  to  lead.  Our  dukes  have  won  their  power  in  com- 
petition of  the  stiffest ;  or,  if  coming  to  leadership  by 
easier  means,  they  keep  it  by  their  talents  for  ordering 
and  governing.  Their  dukedoms  are  holding-corpora- 
tions, under  whose  authority  are  ranged  "held"  cor- 
porations, captained  by  lesser  chiefs,  each  aspiring,  in 
the  grim  old  human  way,  for  higher  place  and  power. 
A  half-dozen  such  recently  rebelled  against  a  new  boss, 


THEIRONMAN  75- 

and  followed  their  old  chief  out  into  a  new  venture,  as 
boldly  as  Bonnie  Dundee  rode  out  of  Edinburgh 
town. 

The  dukes  have  their  official  cabinets  and  their 
expert  advisers,  not  only  in  the  special  concerns  of 
business,  but  in  their  broader  relations  with  society, 
which  provide  them  with  markets,  labor,  funds.  They 
have  their  economists,  psychologists,  publicity  agents, 
chaplains.  Injecting  ministers  into  departments  of 
personal  relations  and  welfare-work  is  too  common 
now  to  be  worth  a  "story"  in  any  publication  above 
the  grade  of  house-organ.  The  big  chiefs  have  men  to 
write  speeches  for  them,  men  to  interpret  news  for 
them,  men  to  study  problems  for  them.  Otherwise, 
they  would  never  get  their  work  done,  for  all  their 
high  speed  and  long  hours. 

United  States  Steel  is  one  of  our  modern  dukedoms, 
with  holdings  in  many  states  and  foreign  climes,  with 
vessels  and  railroads  at  command,  with  an  army  of 
stockholders  and  a  still  vaster  army  of  workmen. 
Ford  heads  another,  and  in  some  ways  an  even  more 
interesting  one,  because  it  has  grown  up  under  our 
eyes  in  a  single  generation  and  is  even  yet  merely  the 
definitely  prolonged  shadow  of  an  original  personality, 
with  a  desire  to  humanize  industrial  relations. 

Just  as  the  feudal  leader  who  captured  the  imagina- 
tion of  his  followers  became  the  object  of  a  hero-myth, 
so  the  Ford  myth  may  be  discerned  cumulating  to- 
day. The  mystic  strain  in  the  man  draws  heavily 
upon  the  mysticism  of  the  masses.  He  is  the  wonder- 
worker; at  his  edict  wages  rise,  and  defunct  railroads 


76  THE     IRON     MAN 

earn  dividends.  Able,  he  must  be ;  and  yet  he  rose  on 
favoring  circumstances,  and  more  than  once  has  been 
saved  by  the  inexorable  operations  of  economic  causes 
which  he  gives  no  hint  of  comprehending.  But  there 
is  no  use  citing  those  causes  to  a  Ford  enthusiast ;  the 
Ford  myth  is  already  too  strong.  Some  day  it  may  be 
as  hard  to  discover  the  cold  truth  about  Ford  as  it  is 
about  Cromwell,  Napoleon,  or  Washington.  The 
Roosevelt  myth  is  already  set,  adamant  and  inde- 
structible; the  Ford  myth  is  still  growing,  gaining 
strength  and  depth  day  by  day.  Well,  we  cannot  es- 
cape our  myths  and  must  live  with  them,  for  better 
or  worse.  The  point  is  that,  since  myths  accumulate 
around  none  other  than  socially  significant  persons, 
the  Ford  myth  validates  Ford  as  socially  significant  in 
the  court  of  last  resort  —  the  soul  of  the  masses. 

The  significance  of  industrial  leaders  in  our  days 
may  be  measured  almost  mathematically.  When  a 
smith  employing  two  helpers  bargained  with  the  third, 
the  newcomer  was  one  fourth  as  significant  as  the 
boss.  When  the  boss  has  20,000  men  under  him, 
then  the  man  on  the  outside,  looking  in  for  a  job,  is 
only  1/20002  as  significant  as  the  other,  and  the  boss, 
for  practical  purposes,  bulks  as  large  in  the  commu- 
nity as  20,000  helpers.  Probably  more,  because,  the 
more  power  is  concentrated,  the  deeper  it  cuts  through 
the  social  strata. 

How  significant  an  industrial  leader  can  be  to  a 
town  is  brought  forcibly  home  by  a  sudden  shift  in  the 
succession  of  grand  dukes  in  our  town.  The  former 
incumbent,  whose  industries  employed  25,000  of  our 


THEIRONMAN  77 

100,000  population,  was  a  native  son,  who  started  on 
a  shoestring  and  went  far  enough  to  be  deposed  in 
Wall  Street.  He  was  a  mighty  seller  of  goods,  not 
primarily  a  financier;  and,  in  order  to  have  goods  to 
sell,  he  built,  it  seems,  somewhat  too  fast  and  furi- 
ously. In  building  factories  he  also  built  a  city  — 
13000,  to  100,000,  in  twenty  years. 

Ten  years  ago  or  so  he  left  us  for  New  York,  thereby 
becoming  an  absentee  duke;  but  occasionally  he  re- 
turned on  flying  trips,  which  were  duly  noted  in  the 
public  prints  for  our  guidance  and  satisfaction.  Even 
in  absentia,  however,  he  remained  our  leading  citizen. 
We  leaned  upon  him  in  ways  that  must  have  tried  his 
patience.  We  could  get  no  highly  important  public 
enterprise  under  way  until  he  had  given  it  his  sanction 
by  telegraph  or  messenger.  Ever  and  anon  we  held 
him  up  for  money.  His  name  was  on  our  lips  oftener 
than  that  of  any  president  except  Roosevelt.  So  he 
was  our  hero,  actual  at  the  start,  mythical  toward  the 
end  —  almost  our  god.  In  fact,  I  fancy  some  of  our 
real-estate  men  prayed  to  him  o'  nights,  since  he  so 
clearly  possessed  the  power  to  make  or  break  them. 
All  the  young  fellows  admired  him,  because  he  was 
doing  precisely  what  they  would  have  liked  to  do  if 
they  could ;  the  elders  were  grateful  to  him  for  boost- 
ing the  value  of  their  holdings.  Even  those  too  con- 
servative to  buy  his  stocks  found  their  realty  values 
soaring  as  he  built.  He  was  our  bridge  to  fortune ;  we 
relied  upon  him  for  prosperity,  and  usually  got  it 
with  little  trouble.  Our  local  autocrat  was  Billy,  yet 
he  graciously  kept  the  velvet  glove  over  the  iron  hand, 


78  THE     IRON     MAN 

and  preferred  to  stand  among  us  rather  as  first  among 
equals. 

In  return,  we  gave  him  loyalty,  and  as  little  bother 
as  a  pioneer  engaged  in  large-scale  operations  could 
expect.  Labor  troubles  were  rare.  His  old  workmen 
knew  him,  and  talked  about  him  to  the  new  ones.  All 
were  aware  that  he  played  baseball  as  a  kid,  sold  fire 
insurance  as  a  youth,  and  battled  through  to  the  top 
by  himself.  All  agreed  that  he  was  generous  and 
democratic,  called  folks  by  their  first  names,  and  was 
not  above  darting  into  a  quick  lunch  for  a  sandwich. 
Our  newspapers  never  missed  an  opportunity  to 
praise  at  once  his  eminence  and  his  commonplaceness. 
Labor  was  for  him  on  two  counts :  first,  he  paid  high 
wages  and  never  cut  them;  second,  he  did  not  fit  in 
neatly  with  the  Wall  Street  scheme  of  things.  Wages 
were  cut  when  he  was  out  of  the  saddle  and  Wall 
Street  in  the  saddle;  ergo,  Billy  was  the  friend  of  the 
boys,  and  Wall  Street  their  enemy.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  perhaps,  if  costs  had  been  watched  acutely, 
there  would  have  been  no  need  to  go  to  Wall  Street 
for  funds.  But  that  question  need  not  enter  here. 

Now  the  "boys"  have  a  new  boss,  whom  they  have 
never  seen,  and  they  have  taken  a  wage-cut.  The 
morale  in  the  factories  is  low;  the  men  are  working 
efficiently  with  "  the  fear  of  God  "  in  their  hearts.  But 
the  fear  is  not  so  much  of  God  as  of  the  Big  Stick. 
Loyalty  has  worn  thin;  their  hero  has  departed;  the 
rank  and  file  have  lost  their  comforting  myth  and 
face  stark  reality.  They  speak  of  the  notable  Ameri- 
can family  now  in  control,  and  with  a  century-old 

' 


THEIRONMAN  79 

record  of  fair  dealing  with  labor,  as  "  them  Jews  from 
Wall  Street."  These  new  bosses  they  have  never 
seen,  and  they  have  no  conception  of  them  as  other 
than  a  power  over  their  lives,  a  far-away,  intangible 
power,  impersonal  almost  as  the  Deity.  The  men,  as 
I  write,  are  sore,  feeling  themselves  caught  and  about 
to  be  sacrificed  to  a  money  Moloch.  This  may  be,  I 
think  it  is,  nonsense;  but  it  is  mental  poison  to  Tom, 
Dick,  and  Harry;  and  time  —  the  sovereign  antidote 
—  will  be  required  to  disillusion  them.  Another  myth 
must  grow  up  around  the  central  figure  in  their  work- 
relations  before  they  can  forget  Duke  Billy,  and  fol- 
low confidently  their  new  leader. 

It  has  become  rather  the  fashion  for  our  modern 
dukes  to  leave  their  plants  to  assistants,  and  take 
themselves  off  to  New  York,  where  they  pay  court  to 
King  Capital  as  assiduously  as  the  dukes  of  France 
courted  the  Bourbons.  There  must  be  some  economic 
advantage  in  this  hegira;  but  there  certainly  are  dis- 
advantages. This  is  the  last  step  in  the  separation  of 
the  man  and  his  boss  in  sympathies,  in  mutual  re- 
sponsibilities as  citizens  in  the  community.  Even 
Billy  was  growing  away  from  us  toward  the  end;  a 
less  imaginative  man  would  have  done  so  long  before. 

The  simple  lives  of  workingmen,  their  hard-won 
homes  and  brave  efforts  to  maintain  the  American 
standard  of  living  in  those  homes  —  these  ought  to  be 
under  the  eyes  of  their  real  boss  most  of  the  time. 
Statements  of  accountants,  earnings-sheets  and  cost- 
records,  show  less  than  the  great  employer  needs  to 
know.  The  best  welfare-work  many  a  corporation 


8o  THE     IRON     MAN 

chief  could  do  would  be  to  come  home  and  take  a  per- 
sonal interest  in  the  human  problems  of  his  factory. 
But  where  the  big  boss  has  a  dozen,  or  two  dozen, 
plants  in  his  string,  what  then?  The  evil  holds;  the 
remedy  is  not  so  apparent. 

This  brings  us  face  to  face  with  one  of  the  puzzles 
of  the  Industrial  Age.  How  far  can  concentration  of 
industry  go?  Has  it  reached  its  limits?  No  categor- 
ical answer  is  possible ;  but  the  evidence  leans  toward 
the  affirmative. 

While  the  law  may  set  temporary  limits  upon  com- 
binations, economics  has  the  last  word.  Business  is 
personality  applied  to  the  satisfaction  of  material 
wants  through  cooperating  humans.  The  cooperat- 
ing group  which  the  leader  captains  is  likely  to  be  a 
measure  of  his  ability  to  lead,  since  the  group  will  not 
long  remain  efficient  beyond  the  limits  of  his  author- 
ity. If  the  big  boss  cannot  bring  his  will  to  bear  upon 
the  furthest-removed  laborer  in  the  company's  fur- 
thest-removed mill,  then  the  corporation  is  too  large  to 
function  economically  under  him.  Competition  will 
enforce  one  of  two  changes  —  either  the  group  will  be 
reduced  in  size  to  the  point  where  the  management 
functions  efficiently,  or  a  new  manager  must  be 
sought.  If  a  new  manager  cannot  be  found,  efficient 
enough  to  cope  with  the  extended  problem,  the  group 
proceeds  toward  dissolution,  usually  not  in  one  slide 
into  bankruptcy,  but  by  a  gradual  descent,  inter- 
rupted by  stages  where  things  are  held  steady  by 
efficient  management.  At  any  of  these  stages,  how- 
ever, the  problem  is  precisely  the  same  as  it  was  at 


THE     IRON     MAN  81 

the  beginning;  if  the  manager  is  bigger  than  his  job, 
the  concern  can  grow  up  to  the  limit  of  governing  cir- 
cumstances; otherwise,  it  will  take  another  slide.  The 
decline  of  a  corporation,  like  the  decline  of  a  state,  — 
the  Roman  Empire,  for  example,  —  is  marked  by  a 
feverish  search  for  leaders,  and  by  stages  of  advance 
or  retreat,  according  as  those  leaders  meet  effectively 
the  circumstances  confronting  them. 

The  extent  to  which  industry  may  be  concentrated, 
therefore,  depends  upon  two  factors:  the  personal 
force  behind  the  decision,  and  the  receptivity  of  labor 
to  that  thought-transference.  The  further  away  labor 
stands  from  the  real  boss,  in  space,  ideals,  habit  of 
thought,  and  manner  of  life,  the  more  difficult  it  be- 
comes to  maintain  authority  in  toil,  side  by  side  with 
democracy  in  politics.  Since,  in  a  pinch  between  the 
two,  the  latter  may  be  considered  the  stronger  and 
more  enduring,  the  tendency  of  the  future,  in  theory, 
must  be  toward  smaller  units  rather  than  larger,  un- 
less some  unforeseen  improvement  in  communication 
is  effected.  Practically,  of  course,  the  amelioration  of 
present-day  discontent  by  compromises  toward  co- 
operation may  check  the  theoretical  tendency;  and 
it  is  even  possible  that,  as  industry  advances  toward 
more  complete  cooperation,  still  larger  units  may  be 
agglomerated  under  one  head.  But  that  will  merely 
be  the  substitution  of  a  mental  getting- together  for 
the  physical  getting-together  which  meant  so  much 
to  labor  in  the  old  days,  and  the  loss  of  which  now 
distresses  the  laborer.  Needless  to  say,  the  path 
toward  this  mental  rapprochement  is  roundabout  and 


82  THE     IRON     MAN 

difficult,  as  compared  with  the  direct  short  cut  of  the 
boss  on  the  job;  and  it  may  not  be  worth  the  effort, 
when  the  man  behind  the  pay-roll  can  come  home 
and  get  on  the  big  end  of  his  job  —  work-relations. 
Finance  is  a  necessary  evil ;  speculation  an  unnecessary 
evil  —  work  is  neither,  and  must  be  served. 

From  not  more  than  twenty  per  cent  of  the  popula- 
tion is  drawn  the  industrial  aristocracy  whose  tenure 
of  power  rests  absolutely  upon  their  ability  to  think 
and  do.  That  group  contains  those  who  have  risen  from 
the  ranks,  as  well  as  those  coming,  ready  financed, 
to  the  seats  of  the  mighty.  But  it  is  worthy  of  note 
that,  while  inherited  wealth  may  place  a  man  aloft, 
it  cannot  guarantee  his  continuing  in  authority.  There 
is  always  room  at  the  top,  because  the  mortality  rate 
in  industrial  leadership  is  so  high.  One  stumble, 
and  the  victim  usually  may  as  well  hand  in  his  resig- 
nation. If  he  is  too  firmly  fixed  in  his  seat  for  quick 
removal,  competition  whittles  away  at  the  foundation 
of  his  structure.  Make  good  or  go  down  —  that  is 
the  iron  law  of  industry. 

There  is  this  ever-present  social  danger  in  competi- 
tion —  that  it  drives  men  to  decisions  oftentimes 
harsher  than  they  would  make  if  they  were  not  under 
its  pressure.  To  preserve  his  group-organization  —  his 
corporation  —  solvent  and  efficient  must  ever  be  the 
chief  concern  of  the  industrial  leader.  Competition 
may  not  always  give  him  time  to  work  out  plans  fruit- 
ing far  away;  the  financial  situation  may  force  him 
to  adopt  a  harsh  course  with  labor  to-day,  for  in- 
stance, when  he  knows  full  well  that,  in  the  long  run,  a 


THEIRONMAN  83 

more  considerate  policy  would  be  beneficial.  Gener- 
ally speaking,  the  man  of  ideals  in  industry  finds  play 
for  his  idealism  in  proportion  as  his  enterprise  is  com- 
fortably financed ;  when  capital  —  the  power  to  wait 
—  gives  him  a  chance  to  take  at  leisure  hurdles  which 
less-well-financed  concerns  must  take  in  a  rush.  The 
better  his  position,  the  stronger  he  is  for  the  long  run. 

A  noteworthy  example  is  that  of  Judge  Gary  in  de- 
clining to  cut  wages  as  swiftly  as  minor  concerns  did, 
either  through  necessity  or  choice.  The  so-called 
soullessness  of  corporations  is  subject  to  this  qualifi- 
cation :  in  so  far  as  money  and  prevision  can  compen- 
sate for  the  human  touch,  the  larger  the  business,  the 
fairer  are  its  practices.  Here,  again,  the  reaction  of 
the  corporation  to  ethics  in  trade  and  employment  is 
largely  the  reaction  of  its  leader.  Big  business  cannot 
afford  to  be  mean  and  small ;  its  shop  policy  must  be 
as  straight  as  its  market  policy;  and  where  either  is 
crooked,  the  fault  lies  usually  with  a  subordinate  or 
distributor,  who  has  played  the  company  false.  I 
refer  here  to  conscious  crookedness,  and  not  to  in- 
justices which  sometimes  flow  from  mistaken  policies 
applied  with  overbearing  weight. 

How  to  keep  competition  on  a  plane  where  enter- 
prisers ethically  inclined  can  satisfy  labor,  their  stock- 
holders, and  the  market  is  a  chief  concern  of  the 
public  in  our  day.  Cheap  goods  are  a  boon;  but  if 
competition  toward  cheapness  grinds  labor  down  in 
morale  and  buying  power,  the  worth-whileness  of 
cheap  goods  vanishes  into  thin  air.  We  heard  much, 
some  years  ago,  about  fair  competition,  which  was 


84  THE     IRON     MAN 

interpreted  to  mean  the  restricting  of  competition  to 
a  point  where  small-scale  operators  could  continue 
production  when  opposed  by  large-scale  operators. 
There  is,  of  course,  much  to  be  said  for  that;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  there  would  equally  be  something  to 
be  said  on  the  advisability  of  protecting  large-scale 
enterprises,  with  liberal  labor  policies,  against  small- 
scale  competitors,  whose  labor-code  is  more  primitive. 
Certainly  the  ethics  of  employment  —  an  advancing 
code,  upon  which  I  pin  more  faith  than  upon  any 
other  factor  for  the  unraveling  of  the  tangle  of  inter- 
ests and  instincts  into  which  the  common  use  of  auto- 
matic machinery  has  brought  modern  society  — 
scarcely  can  reach  fruition  in  an  absolutely  free  and 
open  field,  where  the  least  ethical  travel  light,  and  the 
more  ethical  are  under  self-imposed  weights.  Yet 
dynamic  forces  cannot  be  standardized.  Associations 
of  producers  may  go  some  distance  in  relieving  this 
situation.  Public  opinion,  perhaps,  may  do  more  by 
supporting  the  citizen-boss  and  frowning  upon  the 
miser-boss.  If  these  do  not  serve,  then  the  state 
doubtless  will  try  its  hand  —  whether  for  good  or 
evil,  none  may  say  in  advance  of  trial. 

For  the  state  must  reckon  with  the  men  who  boss 
automatic  machinery,  whose  commands  bring  forth 
new  machines  and  shift  populations,  whose  success 
fills  the  coffers  of  the  Federal  treasury  with  taxes, 
whose  exports  create  trade-balances,  and  whose  im- 
ports create  treasury-balances.  If  the  state  had  no 
concern  for  the  common  man  in  his  wrestling  with 
the  Iron  Man,  if  the  state  were  pure  capitalist,  it  still 


THEIRONMAN  85 

would  have  to  reckon  with  the  uncommon  man  in  the 
industrial  saddle.  But  a  state  tinged  ever  so  little 
with  democracy,  even  faintly  conscious  of  its  respon- 
sibilities to  the  mass,  must  consider  how  the  mass 
fares  under  its  bosses  while  operating  these  new  tools. 
In  this  America  of  ours,  founded  in  revolt  and  geared 
to  universal  suffrage,  there  is  no  dodging  that  issue, 
even  for  an  instant. 

Our  industrial  leaders,  rather  than  the  statesmen 
and  educators,  carry  the  destinies  of  modern  America 
on  their  shoulders.  They  are  doing  some  very  won- 
derful things,  some  of  which  they  but  dimly  appre- 
hend. At  the  same  time  that  they  are  raising  the 
standard  of  living,  they  are  contributing  to  a  solidar- 
ity of  labor  and  a  mediocrity  of  type  hitherto  un- 
known in  America.  Variations  of  earning  power  and 
social  position,  based  on  craft-skill,  are  disappearing 
from  our  world.  Rural  and  town  labor  are  fusing  in 
ideas  as  in  function.  Our  ablest  minds  set  the 
public  a  pace  so  fast  that  weak  spots  are  uncovered 
in  the  mental  armor  of  less  competent  individ- 
uals, a  process  tending  toward  lower  levels  in  the 
plebs. 

But  perhaps  the  most  important  thing  that  they 
are  doing,  of  which  they  are  not  altogether  conscious, 
appears  on  the  credit  side  of  the  ledger.  They  are 
training  the  workaday  world  in  cooperation.  No 
such  school  of  cooperation  in  mundane  affairs  has 
ever  been  set  up  as  that  operated  for  profit  by  Amer- 
ican corporations.  With  every  improvement  in  proc- 
ess and  every  expansion  of  scope,  the  day  is  brought 


86  THE     IRON     MAN 

nearer  when  the  lesson  shall  have  been  learned  and 
the  attempt  to  apply  it  made. 

Whether  the  attempt  to  amend  the  basis  of  indus- 
trial cooperation  in  the  popular  interest  shall  succeed, 
depends  in  large  measure  on  the  orientation  which  our 
driving  men  of  affairs  make  in  the  face  of  the  growing 
demand  by  the  workers  for  a  larger  share  in  shaping 
their  own  destinies.  As  I  see  the  situation,  the  at- 
tempt will  fail  unless  practical,  experienced  minds 
give  it  direction  and  leadership.  We  shall  have  ex- 
actly as  much,  perhaps  more,  need  for  industrial 
leaders  then,  need  for  their  adaptability,  their  deter- 
mination ;  and  we  shall  have  to  make  such  terms  with 
them  as  will  keep  them  in  the  game,  or  else  let  civiliza- 
tion slump.  The  trend  toward  cooperation  proceeds 
with  infinite  variety  of  adjustments  between  dynamic 
forces,  and  must  go  forward  in  that  way;  standardiza- 
tion would  be  fatal  to  our  whole  order. 

But  the  impulse  toward  cooperation  is  strong  and 
determining  —  one  of  those  popular,  settled  mandates 
before  which  the  few  must  bow  or  yield.  The  few  can 
best  serve  society  and  themselves  by  yielding  grace- 
fully but  not  too  soon ;  seeking  always  to  preserve  the 
identity  of  their  groups;  building  upon  the  public 
service  which  those  groups  indubitably  perform,  and 
trusting  the  public  to  recognize  that  service  in  due 
time;  contenting  themselves  with  the  social  by-prod- 
ucts of  power  —  eminence,  public  regard,  and  clear 
consciences  —  in  lieu  of  the  baser  satisfactions  which 
minister  to  individual  wants  and  vanities. 


V 
INDUSTRY    AND    THE    STATE 

SPEAKING  of  John  Marshall,  former  Senator 
Beveridge  says:  "He  was  a  true  gentleman,  in 
that  he  respected  the  personalities  of  others,  even  of 
the  humblest."  The  Iron  Man,  from  this  standpoint, 
is  no  gentleman,  since  his  invasion  of  personality  is 
instant  and  ruthless.  Men  schooled  in  independence 
and  fed  high  on  the  truths,  half-truths,  and  fallacies  of 
democracy,  resent  this  invasion  instinctively,  though 
they  may  be  brought  by  training  and  experience  to 
accommodate  themselves  to  it.  Necessity  forces  a 
compromise  with  the  feelings,  and  habit  comes  to  their 
rescue;  nevertheless,  millions  of  self-assertive  egos 
struggle  every  hour  of  our  days  and  nights  against  the 
monotony  and  subordination  involved  in  the  "vast, 
repetitive  processes"  of  modern  industry.  The  de- 
fective may  not  be  irked  by  the  grind,  the  effective 
may  be  roused  to  enthusiasm  by  opportunities  which 
automatic  machinery  and  interchangeable  manufac- 
ture offer  to  his  ambitions ;  but  the  mass  lying  between 
these  upper  and  nether  layers  of  the  social  cake  is 
neither  content  nor  thrilled.  Hence  the  widespread 
fretfulness  which  we  call  social  unrest. 

The  articulate  note  of  this  unrest,  and  its  chief  polit- 
ical aspect,  is  resentment  against  owners  and  managers 
of  machines,  against  capitalists,  bosses,  and  propri- 
etors. It  has  many  catch-phrases,  of  which  "indus- 
trial democracy"  is  just  now  the  most  meaningful.  In 


88  THE     IRON     MAN 

deference  to  this  outcry  from  the  mass,  legislatures 
here  and  abroad  have  busied  themselves  for  many 
years  in  passing  laws  in  control  of  work-relations  and 
abridging  individual  liberty  in  the  use  and  disposition 
of  property.  A  goodly  share  of  current  legislation  is 
of  this  regulatory  character ;  and  of  late  we  have  seen 
an  extension  of  this  influence  in  the  granting  to  certain 
groups  of  citizens  —  notably  to  farmers  organized  into 
cooperative  societies  and  laborers  organized  into 
unions — of  a  license  to  do  what  groups  of  managers 
and  proprietors  may  not  do.  Nevertheless,  unrest 
continues,  and  more  persons  listen  daily  without 
protest  to  proposals  that  the  institution  of  private 
property  either  be  destroyed,  root  and  branch,  or  at 
least  excluded  from  control  over  all  socially  necessary 
forms  of  wealth. 

Champions  of  these  extremist  proposals  have  not 
overlooked  the  asocial  and  anti-social  effects  of  grow- 
ing automatization.  They  consider  that  the  increasing 
use  of  automatic  machinery  under  private  ownership 
presents  to  society  and  the  state  the  evils  of  industrial 
capitalism  in  such  concentrated  form,  that  the  prole- 
tariat must  come  into  control  of  the  machines,  or 
descend  into  a  new  slavery.  Industry,  they  say,  is 
not  worth  preserving  unless  socialized.  Socialists 
would  effect  this  through  the  state;  Communists 
through  group  administration  of  property  held  and 
worked  in  common  —  a  modern  adaptation  of  the 
ancient  commune.  Anarchists  prefer  a  governorless 
society,  in  which  the  nice  adjustments  of  modern  in- 
dustry, based  as  they  are  on  enforceable  contracts, 


THEIRONMAN  89 

could  not  be  maintained.  Inside  these  major  align- 
ments are  many  divisions,  which  so  far  weaken  the 
practical  politics  of  the  opposition  that  the  institution 
of  private  property,  firmly  rooted  in  the  instincts, 
continues  to  function  in  countries  nominally  Socialist, 
and  to  gain  strength  month  by  month  even  in  Com- 
munist Russia. 

Observing  labor's  dissatisfaction  to  be  increasing, 
despite  increased  reward  and  higher  standards  of  liv- 
ing, it  is  inevitable  that  men  take  to  explaining 
radicalism  in  non-economic  terms.  One  says  "work- 
neurosis";  another,  "  overstimulation  of  modern  life"; 
still  another,  Stewart  Paton  of  Princeton,  stresses 
"the  defense  reactions  of  inadequates."  Granting  a 
measure  of  truth  to  each  diagnosis,  no  single  one  is 
altogether  satisfactory;  and,  even  lumped  together, 
they  do  not  quite  satisfy.  To  say  that  individuals  suf- 
ficient to  influence  social  judgments  are  inadequate 
to  meet  their  personal  problems  competently,  is  quite 
as  severe  a  judgment  upon  the  civilization  presenting 
those  problems  to  frail  humanity  as  it  is  upon  frail 
humans  for  being  downhearted  in  their  presence. 
When  a  system  of  living  becomes  too  complex  for  the 
common  man  of  good-will  to  adjust  himself  thereto 
with  reasonable  comfort  and  confidence,  the  inade- 
quacy is  the  system's,  not  the  individual's.  Life  and 
human  nature  are  primary;  civilization  and  industry 
are  secondary  to  them,  and  cannot  be  maintained 
unamended  much  longer  than  the  masses  find  them 
worth  while.  He  who  forgets  this  elemental  fact  builds 
his  theories  upon  the  sand;  the  state  which  does  not 


9o  THE     IRON     MAN 

reckon  with  it  at  every  turn  is  preparing  for  revolution. 

Regulation  of  industrial  processes  by  the  state  in 
the  interest  of  society,  therefore,  is  sound  in  principle, 
however  ill  devised  its  regulating  ordinances  may  be, 
however  cumbersome  and  wasteful  its  administrative 
processes.  States  may  not  be  proceeding  by  the  most 
direct  routes  to  correct  the  social  weaknesses  which 
modern  industry  develops ;  but  the  people  surely  have 
shown  common  sense  in  insisting  that  each  state  at- 
tend to  the  situation  as  best  it  can  before  the  case 
gets  out  of  hand.  Perceiving  the  foundations  of  so- 
ciety to  be  shaken  by  the  competitive  strivings  of  our 
effectives,  the  potency  of  machine  industry  to  breed 
war,  shift  populations,  cause  the  race  to  degenerate, 
and  rob  life  of  many  of  its  humbler  compensations, 
our  people  would  ill  deserve  their  political  heritage 
did  they  not  strive,  however  blindly,  to  correct  the 
balance  by  calling  in  their  sovereign  ally  —  the  state. 
The  call  has  been  sounded  and  heard.  The  state  may 
have  fumbled;  nevertheless,  it  has  moved.  To-day 
the  danger  is  not  so  much  that  the  state  may  lag,  as 
that  it  may  move  too  fast  and  too  far,  shifting  over 
from  a  reasonable  control,  in  which  innovators  may 
work  out  their  ideas  without  substantial  distress  to 
the  public,  to  arbitrary  direction  under  which  bu- 
reaucracy stifles  individual  initiative  and  autocracy 
nullifies  group-decisions. 

There  is  apparent  in  the  civilized  world  to-day  a 
drift  toward  state  control  of  industry,  so  marked  that 
it  may  bring  us  shortly  to  a  conscious  revival  of 
"state  mercantilism."  Read  out  of  court  long  since 


THE     IRON     MAN  91 

by  Adam  Smith  in  his  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  political 
manipulation  of  trade  draws  renewed  strength  from  a 
number  of  sources.  Foremost,  of  course,  is  this  de- 
fensive reaction,  wide  and  strong,  by  the  people 
against  submergence  in  automatism.  Coal-and-iron 
states  depend  for  solvency  more  than  ever  upon  busi- 
ness earnings.  Nationals  expect  their  states  to  pro- 
tect their  overseas  profits  and  investments,  from 
which  develops  the  corollary  that  states  must  guard 
against  possible  consequences  by  approving  overseas 
economic  adventures  in  advance.  Political  invasion 
of  business,  breaking  down  easily  into  class  and  spe- 
cial legislation,  offers  unusual  opportunities  to  poli- 
ticians to  expand  their  influence  and  emoluments,  and 
is  as  water  on  the  wheels  of  bureaucracies  keen  to 
perpetuate  themselves.  Improvements  in  transpor- 
tation and  communication  now  make  comparatively 
easy  intense  economic  unity  in  even  the  largest  of 
industrial  states.  Their  governments,  too,  are  mov- 
ing consciously  to  alleviate  domestic  unrest  and  build 
up  nationalist  strength,  by  assisting  their  nationals  to 
export  goods  and  import  raw  materials  on  favorable 
terms,  to  the  end  that  jobs  may  be  plenty  and  ques- 
tions few. 

Many  lesser  considerations  might  be  listed,  among 
them  the  witless  habit  of  the  press  in  forever  calling 
upon  the  state  to  do  something  about  something,  usu- 
ally something  which  the  press  soon  will  have  for- 
gotten and  later  shall  regret.  The  result  of  all  these 
forces  is  a  steady  drift  toward  popular  acceptance  of 
the  state  as  a  sovereign  economic  as  well  as  a  sover- 


92  THE     IRON     MAN 

•eign  political  unit;  but  here  again  the  pragmatist  in 
politics  perceives  the  danger  as  one  of  excess  rather 
than  of  direction. 

Before  establishing  the  state  as  the  everyday  dicta- 
tor of  business,  before  advancing  the  statesman  from 
the  role  of  referee  to  that  of  manager,  it  is  well  to 
consider  gravely  the  character  and  limitations  of  the 
state  and  its  animators.  The  people,  feeding  on 
phrases,  take  as  inspired  revelation  too  much  clap- 
trap. It  is  high  time  to  discuss  in  terms  of  reality  in- 
stitutions usually  dismissed  in  shibboleths.  The 
words  "industrial  democracy"  stand  out  nobly  by 
themselves;  but  it  is  worth  pondering  whether,  in 
practice,  industrial  democracy  would  not  degenerate, 
as  political  democracy  has  degenerated,  into  a  mazy 
intrigue  of  wordy  place-hunting  and  piffling  confer- 
ences, in  which  facile  chaps  who  will  promise  any- 
thing too  often  outstrip  blunt  men  who  can  promise 
nothing.  A  political  democracy  so  poisoned  and  en- 
snared may  be  borne  with,  in  spite  of  its  disabilities, 
for  the  sake  of  its  past  and  for  the  faith  in  its  future. 
But  to  make  and  sell  goods  on  that  basis  would  be  as 
impossible  as  for  Uncle  Sam  to  lift  himself  by  his 
boot-straps.  A  strong  commercial  nation  can  carry 
poor  government  a  long  way  without  breaking;  yet 
the  most  efficient  government  so  far  organized  by 
man  would  be  helpless  in  the  industrial  complex  that 
free  peoples  have  developed  through  bargaining. 

To  admit  the  practical  limitations  of  state  sover- 
eignty is  exactly  as  important  as  admitting  the  state's 
vital  interest  in  just  work- relations.  By  common 


THE     IRON     MAN  93 

consent  we  accept  the  sovereignty  of  the  state,  for  the 
sake  of  tranquillity  at  home  and  safety  abroad.  Those 
powers  which,  in  private  hands,  lead  to  the  oppression 
of  the  many  by  the  few,  —  the  right  to  make  and  en- 
force laws,  to  maintain  armed  forces,  make  war,  levy 
customs  and  taxes,  —  these  inhere  in  the  state  as  we 
know  it.  Yet  the  truth  is  that  these  sovereign  powers 
are  the  result  of  growth,  accretion,  conquest,  and  are 
maintained  only  by  ceaseless  vigilance.  The  state, 
here  and  there,  is  even  now  extending  its  dominion 
over  education  to  include  supervision  over  private 
educational  institutions.  And  it  seems  likely  that, 
presently,  it  will  have  to  resist  the  invasion  of  its 
monopoly  over  armed  forces  by  declaring  against  the 
growing  tendency  of  corporations  to  rely  for  property 
protection  upon  companies  of  private  guards,  a  prac- 
tice common  in  sparsely  settled  sections  and  often 
producing  grave  results,  as  in  West  Virginia  of  late. 
Broadly  speaking,  whatever  power  the  state  may 
gain  is  never  yielded  except  on  compulsion  or  through 
negligence.  Revolution  —  active  or  passive  —  is  the 
only  certain  means  by  which  the  governed  can  re- 
cover valid  freedom  of  action  in  lines  over  which  the 
state  has  assumed  sovereignty.  This  fact  alone  ought 
to  be  enough  to  give  us  pause  in  the  process  of  ex- 
panding sovereign  powers  over  business.  To  yield 
rights  is  easier  far  than  to  regain  them.  Those  liberties 
for  work  and  trade,  which  we  enjoy  so  carelessly  and 
seem  to  value  so  lightly,  were  wrung  from  states  by 
men  who  knew  the  oppressions  of  state  management, 
and  esteemed  such  rights  the  essence  of  freedom.  To 


94  THE     IRON     MAN 

surrender  them  at  whim,  or  fired  by  ideas  which  time 
is  likely  to  prove  fallacious,  is  absurdly  imprudent. 

Theoretically,  the  state  can  commandeer  the  per- 
sons and  properties  of  its  citizens;  actually,  the  proc- 
ess is  difficult,  except  when  the  nation  is  one  with 
the  state  in  purpose.  But  the  state's  empire  ends 
with  tangibles ;  it  cannot  coerce  the  intangibles ;  can- 
not summon  talents  and  loyalties  by  fiat.  At  every 
point  in  its  progress,  the  state  wins  and  holds  loyalty 
only  by  conferring  benefits,  real  or  fancied ;  and  upon 
penalty  of  utter  stagnation,  it  must  give  talent 
elbow-room. 

Political  history  reveals  a  never-ending  conflict  be- 
tween the  mass  and  the  class  for  the  control  of  the 
state's  political  machinery.  In  a  democracy  the  con- 
flict may  be  considered  as  resolved  in  favor  of  the 
mass,  in  theory,  if  not  always  in  practice.  The  very 
existence  of  the  state  is,  indeed,  a  triumph  for  the 
common  man ;  the  institution  is  his  champion  against 
defective  and  effective  alike;  the  state  is  his,  and  he 
made  it  in  his  own  image. 

Deep  in  his  heart  the  common  man  is  conservative. 
Social  revolutions  are  begun  by  extraordinary  men  of 
Utopian  vision ;  but  after  a  while,  the  cloud-compellers 
must  come  down  to  earth  and  make  good  a  programme 
of  simplification.  Usually  they  move  too  slowly  toward 
moderation  to  satisfy  the  people,  and  so  lose  their 
heads  along  with  their  leadership.  The  French  Revo- 
lution erected  a  state  which  was  to  enforce  Liberty, 
Equality,  and  Fraternity,  and  ended  in  enforcing 
peasant-proprietorship.  Russia  is  headed  in  the  same 


THEIRONMAN  95 

direction;  the  Bolshevist  swing  from  left  to  right  is 
in  the  nature  of  things.  The  complications  of  the 
Communist  regime  have  bitterly  disappointed  the 
peasantry,  who  thought  life  under  the  Empire  and  in 
the  Mir  already  too  complicated,  and  fancied  that  life 
might  be  simpler  with  those  institutions  abolished. 
Madero  talked  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  to  his  Mex- 
icans for  years;  but  not  until  he  promised  them  "forty 
acres  and  a  mule"  did  his  campaign  sweep  the  coun- 
try. Indeed,  the  equivalent  of  forty  acres  and  a  mule 
—  security  and  independence  made  certain  in  some 
time-honored,  clearly  understood  way  —  is  precisely 
what  the  common  man  needs  and  wants.  Our  radi- 
cals of  to-day  play,  consequently,  upon  a  resentment 
conservative  at  base  —  the  distress  of  simple  natures 
at  impacts  of  forces  beyond  their  ken ;  the  hankering 
of  the  many  to  get  back  to  a  scheme  of  life  in  which 
they  can  be  more  self-reliant  and  lean  less  upon  factors 
beyond  their  control. 

Too  much  emphasis  has  been  given,  I  think,  to  the 
hypothetical  quarrel  over  the  division  of  profits,  as  an 
incentive  to  social  unrest.  That  has  its  influence,  of 
course ;  but  too  much  can  be  made  of  it.  Our  common 
man,  now  as  ever,  expects  from  life  little  more  than  a 
living  —  sensible  view,  since  that  is  all  he  gets,  and 
probably  all  he  ever  can  get.  His  chief  quarrel  lies, 
I  think,  not  with  the  pay,  but  with  the  work  and  the 
conditions  under  which  it  goes  forward.  Above  all 
else,  he  prefers  to  earn  his  living  in  old,  tried  ways, 
without  too  much  fretting  and  shifting.  He  resents 
change ;  his  chief  grudge  against  his  leaders  and  mas- 


96  THE     IRON     MAN 

ters  of  to-day  is  that  they  will  not  let  him  alone,  to  do 
as  his  fathers  did  before  him,  to  do  now  as  he  himself 
did  ten  years  ago.  Left  to  himself,  he  would  have 
settled  with  the  machine  at  its  birth  —  by  torch  and 
axe. 

Progress  may  deliver  physical  comfort  and  conven- 
ience ;  but  to  minds  essentially  static,  these  boons  may 
be  bought  at  too  much  of  mental  discomfort  and  in- 
convenience. Progress  involves  insecurity  along  with 
change;  since  security  is  a  primal  need  of  his  nature, 
the  common  man  is  bound  to  doubt  the  desirability  of 
progress.  He  has  succeeded  in  passing  this  doubt 
along  to  the  state  to  this  extent,  that  the  state  stands 
first  of  all  for  security,  and  is  suspicious  of  novelty. 
The  state  is  a  reservoir,  sometimes  stale  and  foul,  of 
tradition  and  precedent,  a  bulwark  of  order  and  me- 
diocrity, and  the  most  static  thing  in  a  changing  uni- 
verse, except  its  former  team-mate  —  the  church. 
The  very  name  —  the  state  —  implies  no  change ;  a 
misnomer,  perhaps,  yet  significant  as  expressing  the 
mass  ideal  of  security. 

The  sovereign  state  represents  the  common  sense 
of  common  folk.  "Better  one  master  than  many," 
say  the  people,  ever  and  ever,  after  trying  the  many; 
"better  even  tyranny  than  oligarchy;  better  to  be 
chained  to  an  immovable  post  than  batted  through 
life  by  irresistible  forces."  So  the  masses  have  de- 
cided time  and  again,  and  must  ever  decide  when 
the  issue  is  drawn  between  institutionalized  and  per- 
sonalized power.  Their  decisions,  in  the  past,  have 
seldom  been  articulate;  but  their  acquiescence  comes 


THE     IRON     MAN  97 

down  to  the  same  thing.  The  strong  can  protect 
themselves ;  they  have  no  need  of  law,  while  the  weak 
need  it  every  hour. 

Political  action,  then,  is  the  answer  of  those  who 
plod  to  those  who  leap.  Through  statutes  and 
courts  are  expressed,  in  due  course,  verdicts  enforce- 
able because  approved  by  settled  public  opinion.  In 
the  very  nature  of  the  state  itself,  the  sovereign  ver- 
dict is  normally  negative.  ' '  Thus  far  and  no  farther, ' ' 
says  the  state  to  these  gifted  individuals  who,  singly 
or  in  groups,  and  answering  egoistic  urges,  would 
drive  the  masses  ahead  of  them,  in  order  to  satisfy 
measurably  their  personal  instincts  toward  domi- 
nance. In  emergencies  the  state  assumes  positive 
direction,  and  speaks  in  the  affirmative,  saying,  "Go 
and  do,"  instead  of  the  usual  "  Halt  and  do  not."  But 
for  a  democracy  this  right-about-face  is  a  forced  putt, 
and  wearies  folk  who  fret  under  compulsion  in  any 
form,  and  resent  it  all  the  more  in  unaccustomed 
forms.  Democratic  governments  take  the  initiative 
at  their  peril:  vide  our  mid-war  elections.  Even 
an  autocratic  state  plays  with  fire  when  it  marshals, 
economic  forces  and  attempts  to  direct  progress ;  soon 
it  must  return  to  its  static  ideal,  perhaps  to  dry-rot 
the  faster  for  the  lianas  of  red  tape  generated  in  its 
enforced  activity. 

In  proportion  as  our  government  departs  from  rea- 
sonable control  of  individual  and  group  efforts,  it 
vitiates  its  constitutional  principles  and  slides  toward 
autocracy,  no  less  autocratic  because  power  may 
have  shifted  from  rich  to  poor,  from  informed  to  ig- 


98  THE     IRON     MAN 

norant.  Moreover,  democracy  never  creates :  men — 
gifted  individuals  —  plunge  out  of  the  mass,  to  create, 
in  the  sight  of  their  less  gifted  but  envious  fellows, 
those  ameliorations  of  life  which,  in  their  complex  and 
imperfect  workings,  constitute  civilization.  Conse- 
quently, control,  and  not  direction  of  personal  and 
group  efforts,  is  and  should  remain  the  accredited 
means  of  protecting  our  society  from  becoming  the 
pawns  of  its  industrial  leaders.  Other  peoples,  less 
individualist  in  tradition  and  with  less  to  lose,  may  go 
further;  but  for  us  the  losses  involved  in  state-led 
industry  must  far  exceed  the  gains. 

There  was  a  time  when  this  conflict  between  mass 
and  class,  between  mediocrity  and  ability,  between 
the  state  and  outstanding  individuals,  was  compli- 
cated by  the  overshadowing  tradition  of  the  Rights  of 
Man  —  certain  inalienable  rights,  vested  in  each  of 
us  by  mere  accident  of  birth.  Fortunately,  these  need 
not  becloud  the  present  situation.  When  business 
leaders  of  a  century  or  more  ago,  seeking  limitation 
of  risk,  struck  that  bargain  with  the  State  of  New 
York,  resulting  in  the  first  general  incorporation  law 
(1811),  they  exchanged  a  measure  of  commercial  lib- 
erty for  a  measure  of  legal  protection.  Now  that 
business  functions  almost  entirely  through  corpora- 
tions, the  state's  ultimate  authority  over  business 
stands  undebatable.  The  state  charters  the  corpora- 
tion ;  licenses  it  to  live  so  many  years,  for  purposes  of 
profit,  in  the  doing  of  this  or  the  holding  of  that.  The 
created  never  can  rise  superior  to  its  creator.  No 
matter  how  great  a  corporation  —  or  the  whole  net- 


THE     IRON     MAN  99 

work  of  corporations  —  grows,  the  masterful  busi- 
ness bloc,  a  genuine  community  in  thought  if  not  in 
loco,  never  can  dodge  the  dour  truth  that  there  is  a 
greater  than  itself  —  the  state. 

Furthermore,  the  business  bloc  must  realize  that  the 
state  acts,  ultimately,  upon  the  mandate  of  the  people. 
The  state,  on  receipt  of  that  mandate  may  delay,  con- 
sult its  beloved  precedents,  mark  time  to  escape  the 
possible  errors  of  snap  judgment,  and  to  give  counter- 
propaganda  a  hearing;  but  if  popular  pressure  be 
maintained,  eventually  it  must  act  as  directed,  on 
penalty  of  revolution.  Even  so  conservative  a  body 
as  the  Supreme  Court  discovers  that  it  is  possible  to 
change  opinions  from  one  decade  to  another,  without 
bringing  the  Constitution  down  in  ruins;  indeed,  if  the 
masses  remain  insistent,  a  quiet  mental  revolution  in 
high  places  is  the  approved  method  of  averting  a 
noisy  physical  revolution  in  the  streets. 

'  The  great  cause  of  revolution,"  according  to 
Macaulay,  "is  this,  that  while  nations  move  onward, 
constitutions  stand  still."  Yes,  but  interpretation  is  a 
buffer  absorbing  many  shocks ;  the  legal  mind,  pressed 
hard  enough,  discovers  divers  ways  of  letting  "free- 
dom broaden  slowly  down  from  precedent  to  prece- 
dent," that  would  astonish  the  Fathers.  Call  up  all  the 
traditions  you  please;  they  have  but  advisory,  not 
primary,  value.  The  adjustment  between  the  state 
and  the  corporation  proceeds,  therefore,  on  the  basis 
of  expediency.  The  people,  through  their  coercive 
agent,  —  the  state,  —  will  go  as  far  as  need  be  to  pro- 
tect their  primary  interests;  and  stop,  presumably, 


ioo  THE     IRON     MAN 

only  when  convinced  that  nothing  can  be  gained  by 
going  further. 

In  other  times  and  places  states  have  fought  their 
aspiring  individuals  on  battlefields  and  battlements; 
now  the  state  proceeds  in  law  and  courts  and  legisla- 
tures, though  none  the  less  vital  for  all  its  peaceful 
setting.  Two  projections  of  Man's  imaginative  fac- 
ulty grapple  there  with  one  another.  Neither  was  in 
the  beginning,  yet  it  is  impossible  for  most  of  us  to 
imagine  the  end  of  either.  They  are  will-associations, 
become  so  natural  to  us  that  life  without  them  would 
be  chaos.  Yet  even  in  their  most  desperate  clinches, 
the  animating  minds  behind  each  are  aware  that  each 
is  essential  to  the  other,  and  that,  were  one  to  fall,  the 
other  must  be  dragged  in  its  train.  So  they  face  each 
other,  mutually  distrustful,  mutually  dependent,  like 
Siamese  twins,  who  never  agree  completely,  yet  must 
agree  somewhat  to  get  anywhere. 

On  the  one  side  is  the  highest  expression  of  the  so- 
cial will,  the  state,  captained  by  two  sorts  of  men  — 
able  tribunes  and  mouthy  demagogues,  and  manned  by 
bureaucrats  fatuously  obsessed,  for  the  most  part,  by 
the  status  quo.  On  the  other  side  are  ranged  lusty, 
virile  children  of  their  stodgy  sire  —  business  organi- 
zations in  which  many  persons,  following  the  univer- 
sal instinct  to  get  the  most  at  the  least  effort,  cohere 
under  the  leadership  of  gifted  individuals  spurred  to 
achievement  by  overmastering  instincts  toward  dom- 
inance. One,  the  apotheosis  of  political  genius,  fixed, 
august  —  a  unity;  the  other  a  coherence  of  economic 
genius,  ganglion  of  many  groups,  each  highly  adapt- 


THEIRONMAN  101 

able.  The  latter  capable  of  doing  anything  well,  pro- 
vided there  is  money  in  it,  and  few  questions  asked; 
applying  boldly  what  power  it  has,  and  avid  for  more ; 
the  former  fumbling  over  tasks  that  its  servants  ought 
to  know  well ;  yet  scrupulous  to  a  hair,  and  chary  of 
exercising  its  full  powers  except  in  emergencies. 

The  state  is  a  conscience,  slow,  majestic,  just,  more 
concerned  with  principles  than  returns,  with  methods 
than  results;  the  corporation  is  a  will,  effective, 
shrewd,  justifying  means  by  ends,  born  to  make 
money  by  getting  things  done,  and  impatient  at  what- 
ever baulks  the  fulfillment  of  that  destiny.  The  one 
is  static,  cleaving  to  precedent,  cherishing  tradition 
and  gratefully  adopting  new  myths,  as  such  spring 
from  the  incurable  mysticism  of  the  masses.  The 
other  is  dynamic,  blind  to  the  past,  keen  toward  the 
future,  ignoring  costs  which  do  not  show  on  the  ledger, 
and  prone  to  pass  along  those  costs — among  which  are 
the  asocial  and  anti-social  effects  of  automatic  ma- 
chinery —  to  the  state  for  settlement. 

This  is  merely  a  new  phrasing  of  a  problem  old  as 
history,  —  in  fact,  the  key-problem  of  civilization, — 
how  shall  the  mass  preserve  its  rights  and  grow  in  the 
fullness  thereof,  and  yet  give  dominant  individuals 
enough  leeway  to  contribute  to  life  ameliorations 
which  they  alone  can  give  in  abundance,  contributions 
which  eventually  become  part  of  the  social  heritage? 
In  a  democracy  whose  founders  bargained  in  council 
to  establish  the  state,  and  for  a  people  who  live  by 
bringing  things  to  market  almost  entirely  upon  the 
basis  of  the  bargain,  this  is  the  root-bargain  of  all. 


102  THE     IRON     MAN 

How  the  bargain  is  struck,  what  are  its  terms  and  im- 
plications, and  how  it  is  enforced  and  amended  —  in 
these  terms  may  nations  be  interpreted,  as  they 
move  toward  unity  or  dissolution. 

France,  through  the  Middle  Ages,  relieved  her 
nobles  of  power  and  left  them  their  privileges.  The 
monarchy  became  absolute,  the  nobles,  courtiers;  and 
Louis  XIV  could  say  with  truth,  "I  am  the  state." 
Descendants  of  great  captains,  local  leaders  who  had 
kept  provinces  and  populations  in  line  for  the  state, 
degenerated  into  puppets.  Since  the  state  did  every- 
thing, they  had  nothing  left  to  do ;  and  presently  were 
able  to  do  nothing  more  meaningful  than  watch  Louis 
don  his  shirt.  When  a  smile  from  the  King's  mistress 
came  to  mean  more  than  famine  in  their  titular  do- 
mains, revolution  waited  just  around  the  corner. 
Then,  when  the  monarchy  had  sore  need  of  men  to 
plan,  to  organize,  to  fight,  these  tissue-leaders  had 
nothing  with  which  to  brace  the  state  which  had 
sucked  away  their  birthrights  —  neither  wills,  nor 
funds,  nor  men-at-arms. 

Political  development  in  Germany  took  another 
tack.  Lacking  a  stay-at-home  overlord,  the  emperors 
being  off  at  wars  beyond  the  Alps,  the  German  dukes 
retained  both  power  and  privileges.  Hundreds  of  po- 
litical subdivisions,  yeasty  bubblings  of  sovereignty 
many  of  them,  made  mediaeval  Germany  a  checkered 
cockpit,  alike  for  civil  and  foreign  wars.  Thus  the 
unifying  of  Germany  was  delayed  until  1870,  a  chronic 
belligerency  strangling  parliamentary  politics  and  in- 
uring anciently  free  peoples  to  autocratic  rule. 


THE     IRON     MAN  103 

The  English,  folk  of  give-and-take,  followed  the 
middle  course  in  this  respect,  as  otherwise.  They  re- 
fused their  aristocracy  privileges,  but  left  them  power 
—  political  and  economic  power,  rooted  in  land  own- 
ership. Commons,  expressing  the  common  sense  of 
the  public,  played  King  against  nobles,  and  vice  versa, 
backing  the  King  when  the  nobles  bore  down  too  se- 
verely, backing  the  nobles  when  the  monarchy  leaned 
toward  despotism  and  the  destruction  of  olden  liber- 
ties. Thus,  when  kings  fell,  as  fall  they  did,  there  re- 
mained dukes  and  earls  and  squires,  strong  in  will  and 
purpose,  to  administer  the  government.  'T  is  said 
the  English  love  a  lord;  well,  they  may,  considering 
the  services  of  so  many  of  them.  Holding  firmly  to  its 
power  to  tax,  which  was  based  on  faith  that  the  people 
would  pay  tax- moneys  only  as  it  decreed,  the  Com- 
mons came  forward,  clinging  now  to  the  royal  vest- 
ments, now  to  the  stirrups  of  the  aristocrats,  until 
such  time  as  it  could  dominate  the  realm.  Long  ago  it 
reduced  the  King  to  a  functionary,  a  personalization 
of  the  state,  a  regal  rubber-stamp.  And  finally,  by 
threatening  to  apply  this  rubber-stamp  on  sufficient 
warrants  of  nobility,  it  reduced  the  House  of  Lords  to 
minor  status  by  breaking  its  power  of  absolute  veto. 
Whether  this  act  in  the  political  drama  of  the  Empire 
be  good  or  ill,  the  method  of  democratic  infiltration 
which  accomplished  it  must  be  rated  successful,  since 
it  bridged  the  gap  from  feudalism  to  popular  govern- 
ment without  a  destructive  revolution,  giving  Britain 
world-leadership  while  France  was  still  in  chaos,  and 
Germany  as  yet  merely  a  geographical  description. 


io4  THE     IRON     MAN 

Industrially  England  followed  the  same  course. 
From  1765,  when  inventions  for  applying  steam- 
power  to  manufacture  gave  the  factory  system  firm 
footing,  down  to  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  British  en- 
terprisers had  a  free  hand.  They  originated,  organ- 
ized, and  directed,  harnessed  natural  forces,  built  new 
towns  and  merchant  fleets,  sent  their  goods  across  the 
seas,  made  London  the  centre  of  world-trade  and 
finance,  and  took  toll  from  the  labors  and  resources  of 
the  whole  planet,  bringing  in  abundant  wealth  upon 
which  the  state  levied  taxes.  Their  enterprises  forced 
government,  often  dilatory  and  unwilling,  to  regular- 
ize unbecoming  situations  overseas  by  hoisting  the 
royal  standard,  where  the  Union  Jack  first  appeared 
for  "business  as  usual." 

As  might  have  been  expected,  evils  appeared  coin- 
cidentally  with  benefits.  Comparatively  free  of  state- 
control,  masters,  in  competition  with  one  another, 
followed  their  inclinations  too  far  for  the  common 
good.  Labor  cowered  under  brutal  laws  in  restraint 
of  combinations  for  wage-bargaining.  Working  condi- 
tions so  vile  that  none  but  a  virile  race  could  have 
survived  them  obtained  side  by  side  with  a  standard 
of  living  crowded  down  toward  the  starvation-point. 
Actually,  there  were  years  when  British  labor  earned 
less  than  a  living,  though  working  long  hours,  the  differ- 
ence being  made  up  in  poor  relief.  The  class  refused 
to  pay  the  mass  living  wages,  but  consented,  quixoti- 
cally, to  be  taxed  for  the  difference  between  real 
wages  and  living  wages.  To  read  this  record  (John  L. 
and  Barbara  Hammond:  "The  Village  Labourer"; 


THE     IRON     MAN  105 

''The  Town  Labourer  ")  is  to  shudder  at  what  indus- 
trial leaders  will  do  in  competition  with  one  another, 
when  the  state  remains  deaf  to  the  travail  of  the 
masses.  Given  equal  opportunity,  I  fancy  our  enter- 
prisers would  do  as  ill,  not  because  they  are  wicked, 
but  because  they  are  intensely  human,  and  dis- 
covering moral  justifications  for  whatever  leads  to 
one's  power  and  prosperity  is  as  instinctive  as  the 
desire  to  gain  those  boons. 

Rather  than  countenance  the  faintest  return  to  such 
mass  misery,  I  would  agree  to  the  state's  clipping  the 
wings  of  industrial  genius  afresh  each  morning.  Yet, 
after  all,  these  same  builders  of  British  industry,  in 
their  struggle  with  the  landlords,  secured  the  enfran- 
chisement of  their  workingmen ;  whereupon  the  latter, 
in  due  course,  undertook  the  protection  of  their  work- 
interests  through  organization  and  of  their  social  in- 
terests through  legislation.  The  liberalizing  of  the 
British  political  system  was  in  large  part  a  by-pro- 
duct of  the  self-seeking  of  British  industrialists.  Also, 
these  leaders,  in  return  for  nothing  more  tangible  than 
freedom  to  trade,  and  paying  taxes  the  while,  contrib- 
uted more  to  the  state  in  territory,  wealth,  and  pres- 
tige than  the  state  could  have  secured  by  exercising  all 
its  sovereign  powers  in  the  most  arbitrary  fashion. 
Measured  merely  by  the  yardstick  of  service  to  the 
state,  and  to  the  hitherto  unenfranchised  masses, 
their  contribution  is  incredibly  vast  and  valuable,  in 
spite  of  the  miseries  incident  to  its  inception  and 
growth.  No  Briton  lives  to-day  who  is  not  to  some 
extent  the  heir  of  the  labors  of  those  industrial  leaders 


io6  THE     IRON     MAN 

and  especially  of  the  early  innovators  of  machine-tools 
—  Watt,  Wilkinson,  Bramah,  Maudslay,  Brunei, 
Clement,  Whitworth,  and  the  rest. 

This  brief  hark-back  to  the  infancy  of  the  industrial 
system  indicates  what  a  state's  creative  citizens  can 
do,  both  for  evil  and  for  good,  when  permitted  to  fol- 
low the  main  chance  full-tilt  to  any  lengths.  Their 
social  contributions,  though  usually  by-products,  are 
none  the  less  invaluable  to  peoples  adaptable  enough 
to  withstand  the  strain  of  progress.  James  J.  Hill 
built  his  railroads,  not  to  serve  the  state,  but  to  serve 
his  Ego.  He  kept  at  it  long  after  he  might  have  re- 
tired, a  made  man,  because  railroad-building  had  be- 
come his  medium  of  self-expression.  As  an  artist  loves 
to  put  oil  and  color  on  canvas  for  the  good  of  his  soul, 
so  Hill  loved  to  conquer  space  with  steel ;  perhaps  also 
he  cherished  the  adulation  which  comes  to  a  picked 
man  after  he  picks  himself  and  proves  the  wisdom  of 
his  choice.  But  the  fact  is  that,  whatever  Jim  Hill 
thought  or  willed  in  the  matter,  actually  he  served  the 
state  and  society,  and  his  by-product  of  service  ex- 
ceeds what  the  state  would  have  wrung  from  him  as 
direct  product  under  duress.  Indeed,  in  a  state  which 
built  its  own  railroads,  Hill  must  have  died  a  village 
teamster;  his  type  prefers  to  run  peanut-stands  " on 
its  own"  than  to  go  through  the  palavering  incident 
to  getting  things  done  through  government.  And 
while  we  may  always  pay  the  Hill  heirs  hire  for  that 
service,  capitalized  full  well,  still  the  Northwest  is  sure 
to  think  well  enough  of  its  bargain  to  teach  in  its  pub- 
lic schools  the  parenthood  of  its  railroads. 


THE     IRON     MAN  107 

Effectives  like  Hill  possess  in  a  superlative  degree 
survival  value ;  they  live  in  works  which  pass  into  pub- 
lic possession,  either  in  fee  simple  or  for  use  at  rates 
which  the  state  sees  to  it,  soon  or  late,  are  reasonable. 
To  deny  such  individuals  reasonable  scope  for  action 
is  to  impoverish  posterity.  There  are  not  too  many 
of  them.  At  heart  we  know  them  to  be  our  dear  ones, 
doing  that  which  each  of  us  would  do  if  he  could ;  we 
must  be  choice  of  them,  for  our  own  sake  and  that  of 
our  children ;  but  —  but  —  the  eternal  but  —  we  must 
keep  them  from  eating  us  up  in  the  fascinating  play  of 
that  mad  game  of  theirs,  in  which  they  jostle  one  an- 
other for  elbow-room,  wealth,  and  eminence. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  nonsense  talked  by  indignant 
business  men  these  days  which  can  be  explained  only 
by  lack  of  background.  Their  chambers  of  commerce 
feed  them  with  everything  but  that  which  they  most 
need  —  philosophy.  Yet  amid  so  much  smoke  there 
must  be  some  fire;  and  I  think  business  men  are  jus- 
tified in  resenting  the  state's  inability  to  approach 
them  without  suspicion,  and  with  some  appreciation 
of  their  services.  Every  corporation  worthy  of  the 
name,  whether  it  produces  shoestrings  or  transporta- 
tion, serves  the  public  at  the  same  time  that  it  serves 
its  stockholders.  In  so  far  as  its  goods  or  services 
ameliorate  life,  it  contributes  something  to  society 
which,  rightly  used,  has  ethical  value.  The  motive  of 
civilization  is  economic,  but  its  goal  is  ethical.  The 
industrial  leader  wants  to  be  understood,  wants  credit 
for  the  ethical  by-product  of  his  economic  efforts.  But 
the  state,  with  so  many  dry-as-dust  officials  watching 


io8  THE     IRON     MAN 

industry  lest  it  slip,  looks  upon  shoelaces  and  trans- 
portation alike  as  subject-matter  for  statistics  first, 
and  taxation  second.  Instead  of  rating  producers  ac- 
cording to  the  justice  of  their  labor  policies,  and  their 
fairness  to  customers,  the  state  appears  to  judge  them 
by  the  completeness  of  their  records;  and  the  scarlet 
corporate  sin  of  the  moment  is  to  fail  to  supply  quite 
all  the  information  that  a  bureau  clerk  needs,  to  keep 
him  busy  the  rest  of  his  uneventful  days. 

This  suspicious  attitude  is,  perhaps,  an  inevitable 
outcome  of  corrupt  corporate  practices.  In  the  name 
of  business,  practical  men,  esteeming  themselves 
pillars  of  the  established  order,  have  in  the  past  sinned 
grievously  against  the  state  and  society.  A  few  have 
been  caught  and  convicted ;  more  have  been  held  up  to 
shame  in  the  public  prints ;  but  the  majority,  no  doubt, 
have  escaped  either  fate,  through  insufficiency  of  laws, 
venality  of  the  courts  and  legislatures,  the  studied 
indifference  of  the  press,  or  the  skill  of  their  lawyers. 
Their  steals  run  the  whole  gamut  of  respectable  vil- 
lainy, from  fraudulently  sequestering  the  public  do- 
main to  milking  absentee  stockholders  through  false 
reports  and  cheating  the  public  by  combinations  to 
hold  up  prices.  Books  have  been  written  about  them, 
and  to  the  end  of  the  chapter  honest  business  must 
suffer  in  fame  and  purse  through  these  lapses  from 
common  honesty  and  fair  play. 

It  would  be  easy  to  write  a  sensational  chapter  on 
the  cheating  of  minority  stockholders.  So  common  is 
such  abuse  of  confidence  that  " blue-sky"  legislation 
is  popular,  on  the  theory  that  the  money  of  the  people 


THE     IRON     MAN  109 

should  be  protected  no  less  than  the  people  themselves. 
Yet  this  corporate  sabotage  against  capital  in  small 
lots  is  far  less  serious  than  other  corporate  evils  of 
which  the  state  takes  little  cognizance.  Whoso  buys 
common  stock  does  so  in  expectation  of  profit,  specu- 
lating for  an  uncertain  income  instead  of  investing  for 
a  settled  one.  His  cooperation  in  the  enterprise,  there- 
fore, is  on  quite  another  plane  from  that  of  the  ordi- 
nary industrial  worker,  who  must  work  or  starve.  The 
consuming  public  is  in  somewhat  the  same  predica- 
ment, since  the  people  must  consume  or  perish.  The 
establishment  of  work-standards  and  market-stand- 
ards rests,  therefore,  upon  the  fundamental  of  pro- 
tecting life  and  its  amenities  under  pressure. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  common-stock  holder  enters 
and  leaves  the  corporation  at  will,  for  profit  only,  and 
is  not  ill-used  if  required  to  take  the  bitter  with  the 
sweet.  He  cannot  in  fairness  claim  more  protection 
for  his  speculative  capital  than  is  already  his  under 
the  "false-pretense"  section  of  the  criminal  code  in 
most  states,  with  rights  of  recovery,  as  established  in 
civil  law,  for  the  safeguarding  of  minority  stock- 
holders. Since  the  state  has  every  reason  to  promote 
investment  and  discourage  speculation,  state  control 
of  security  issues  should  be  concentrated  upon  estab- 
lishing the  soundness  of  fixed-interest  issues.  Mean- 
while, through  schooling  and  publicity,  the  sober 
economic  truth  should  be  drilled  home,  that  he  who 
buys  common  stock  buys  at  his  peril  —  the  greater 
the  return,  the  greater  the  risk.  For  the  state  to  place 
any  sort  of  protective  covering  over  common-stock 


no  THE     IRON     MAN 

speculations,  while  savings  banks,  life  insurance,  and 
a  well-filled  bond  market  are  open  to  the  public,  is 
unsound  economically  and  politically. 

At  this  pass,  the  finding  of  funds  for  industrial 
operations  seems  of  prime  importance ;  but  as  the  co- 
operative spirit  gains  headway,  industries  are  likely 
to  draw  less  and  less  upon  the  public  savings.  Even 
now,  the  corporation  whose  machines  are  manned  by 
operatives  eager  to  produce  worthy  goods,  whose  em- 
ployees hold  no  grudge,  can  finance  itself  abundantly 
through  profits  won  fairly  in  free  markets.  Unfortu- 
nately, such  corporations  are  few. 

Between  the  corporation  and  capital  exists  no  clash 
of  wills,  but  merely  a  discrepancy  of  interest ;  the  clash 
comes  between  many  men  and  much  capital.  Capital 
and  Labor  stand  on  either  side  of  a  widening  chasm, 
across  which  only  the  stronger  laborers  may  leap,  and 
across  which  men  of  good-will  have  increasing  difficulty 
in  making  themselves  heard.  So  the  relation  of  the  state 
to  industry  comes  down,  at  the  moment,  to  an  issue  of 
state-backed  labor  versus  the  corporations. 

Thus  far,  state  backing  for  labor  has  brought  forth 
two  sorts  of  government  action  —  laws  affecting  all 
industrial  labor  (in  the  main  beneficial),  and  laws  and 
rulings  affecting  and  benefiting  only  unionized  labor. 
In  steam-transportation  the  Federal  government, 
heeding  the  loudest  voice,  accepted  the  brotherhoods 
so  completely  that  the  Pennsylvania's  plan  of  em- 
ployee representation  is  held  unworkable  by  Mr.  At- 
terbury,  in  the  face  of  pro-union  decisions  by  the 
Railway  Labor  Board. 


THE     IRON     MAN  in 

In  mill  operations,  however,  craft-unionism  is  a  dead 
issue,  largely  because  of  automatic  machinery.  There 
the  gap  must  be  bridged  by  employers  dealing  directly 
with  their  own  men ;  otherwise,  it  will  not  be  bridged 
at  all.  Consequently,  the  sooner  the  state  ceases  look- 
ing upon  unionism  as  a  panacea  for  all  industrial  labor 
ills,  so  much  the  better.  The  labor  problem  spreads 
far  beyond  union  limits.  The  existence  of  the  political 
status  quo  has  come  to  depend  upon  the  restoration  of 
confidence  between  employer  and  employee.  Exactly 
how  it  shall  be  restored,  and  through  what  media,  is 
less  important  than  the  speed  and  completeness  of  its 
restoration.  Those  in  command  of  large-scale  indus- 
tries are  mostly  committed  to  non-recognition  of 
craft-unions,  a  policy  based  more  upon  instinct  than 
upon  reason,  but,  nevertheless,  binding.  They  resent 
the  intrusion  of  special  pleaders  from  outside  their  in- 
dustrial vale  —  a  state  of  mind  easy  to  understand 
in  view  of  the  sorry  experience  of  managers  in  certain 
unionized  lines  of  production,  notably  the  building 
trades.  However,  many  of  the  industrial  leaders  are 
moving  directly  toward  a  rapprochement  with  their 
employees,  by  various  methods,  all  aimed  at  creating 
solidarity  of  the  producing  group  as  opposed  to  that 
craft-solidarity  which  is  the  union  ideal.  Statesmen 
might  well  consider  whether,  for  industries  localized 
and  automatized,  this  development  is  not  more  logical 
and  satisfactory  than  the  other;  and  if  so,  devote  more 
attention  to  hastening  the  process. 

Obviously  we  are  coming  to  perform,  as  large,  co- 
ordinated groups,  those  economic  life-processes  which 


ii2  THE     IRON     MAN 

our  ancestors  performed  singly,  or  by  twos  and  threes. 
'Whether  this  be  good  or  ill  is  not  determinable ;  the 
shift  has  its  compensations  as  well  as  its  difficulties. 
Mountainous  as  the  latter  seem  at  times,  we  are  still 
far  from  having  tried  out  all  the  controls,  and  are  not 
likely  to  exchange  our  industrialized  existence  for 
something  simpler  until  we  arrive  at  our  wits'  ends. 
Thus  far,  political  controls,  forced  upon  business  by 
the  state  as  a  penalty  for  past  sins  and  protection 
against  present  puissance,  have  received  far  more  at- 
tention than  the  efforts  put  forth  by  corporations  to 
make  industrial  toil  fit  in  with  the  physical,  mental, 
and  social  well-being  of  their  employees.  Enlightened 
employers  have  been  caught  in  the  network  of  legisla- 
tive inhibitions,  along  with  the  most  benighted,  not- 
withstanding the  efforts  of  the  former  to  undertake,  at 
their  own  risk,  betterments  inuring  to  the  comfort  of 
the  people  and  the  safety  of  the  state. 

Obviously  there  is  need  here  for  discrimination ;  but, 
unfortunately,  discrimination  is  not  one  of  the  state's 
strong  points.  The  happiness  of  the  mass  is  the 
state's  ideal;  but  in  a  workaday  world  the  state  fre- 
quently stumbles,  on  its  way  thereto,  over  precedents, 
and  its  progress  is  woefully  hampered  by  predilections 
toward  order  and  uniformity.  So  far  its  servants  seem 
unable  to  grasp  the  possibility  of  aiding  mass  happi- 
ness by  giving  men  and  corporations  of  good  intent 
more  leeway  to  extend  experimentally  the  cooperative 
principle  inherent  in  corporate  operations,  and  already 
being  pressed  to  good  purpose  by  many  business 
groups. 


THE     IRON     MAN  113 

Yet  the  limitations  of  rigid  political  control  of  busi- 
ness, which  tends  inevitably  toward  state  socialism, 
are  so  adamant  to  a  people  of  our  individualist  heri- 
tage, and  the  freezing  of  our  semi-fluid  industrial  so- 
ciety into  class-conscious  orders  of  employers  and 
unionized  workers  seems  so  foreign  to  our  traditions, 
that  the  state  ought  to  make  every  possible  concession 
to  the  principle  of  autonomous  control  before  finally 
establishing  its  mastery,  or  clearing  the  way  definitely 
for  the  Capital-Labor  dog-fight  sure  to  follow  the  in- 
tensification of  class  loyalties.  To  make  the  corpora- 
tion, in  which  many  already  cooperate  in  the  produc- 
tion and  distribution  of  goods  and  earnings,  a  medium 
for  the  cooperative  production  and  distribution  of 
spiritual  values  as  well,  seems  at  all  points  the  Ameri- 
can way  to  harness  the  Iron  Man  to  the  common  good, 
as  automatization  in  industrial  plants  proceeds  toward 
its  predestined  goal. 


VI 
THE    CHANGING    CORPORATION 

TH  E  Iron  Man  is  owned  by  the  corporation.  One 
is  as  much  an  invention  as  the  other;  each  repre- 
sents an  evolution,  in  which  .adaptations  have  been 
piled  upon  simple  legal  and  mechanical  principles. 
The  automatic  machine  is  as  much  a  mechanical  per- 
son as  the  corporation  is  a  legal  person.  The  two  have 
long  kept  step  with  one  another.  Without  the  corpora- 
tion to  finance  its  development  and  distribute  its 
produce,  automatic  machinery  would  still  be  in  em- 
bryo —  museum  models  instead  of  effective  complexes 
grinding  out  goods,  creating  wealth  and  comforts,  in- 
tensifying social  and  political  problems.  And  without 
the  Iron  Man  to  make  the  ordinary  run  of  humans 
useful  in  the  production  of  intricate  goods,  corpora- 
tions could  not  have  reached  their  present  proportions 
and  influence.  Automatic  machinery  is  one  of  the 
forces  establishing  the  truth  of  Lloyd's  dictum,  that 
"the  natural  person,  as  an  enterpriser  of  consequence 
in  industry,  has  ceased  to  exist." 

Together,  the  corporation  and  the  automatic  ma- 
chine form  a  team  capable  of  prodigious  feats  of 
strength;  but  in  their  straightaway  pull  for  profits, 
they  plough  a  pitiless  furrow  through  the  crust  of 
custom.  Strong  their  drivers  must  be,  and  are;  but 
the  masses,  paced  by  the  machine  in  the  shop  and  sel- 
dom outside  the  shop  escaping  from  an  environment 
motivated  by  industry,  wonder  if  the  controllers  of 
their  destinies  are  altogether  to  be  trusted.  And  the 


THE     IRON     MAN  115 

analytic  observer,  too,  must  sometimes  doubt  whether 
even  altruistic  drivers  may  alter  materially  their 
course.  Though  vast  ameliorations  of  life  have  flowed 
from  this  union,  these  have  been  by-products.  A 
world  grown  more  conscious  of  life-processes,  a  public 
seeking  social  welfare,  waits  to  see  if  the  corporation 
and  the  automatic  machine  can  be  swung  somewhat 
away  from  private  gain,  and  somewhat  more  toward 
public  good. 

The  masses  turn  instinctively  toward  their  cham- 
pion— the  sovereign  state ;  laws  in  restraint  of  corpora- 
tions multiply  upon  the  statute  books.  The  people  are 
less  aware  than  the  politicians  of  the  difficulty  of 
applying  political  action  to  industrial  ills.  So  the  re- 
mote consequences  of  such  application  may  be  worse 
than  the  original  infirmity.  I  recall  that  Governor 
Cummins  converted  the  country  to  the  "Iowa  idea"; 
and  I  have  lived  to  see  Senator  Cummins  lead  in  re- 
turning the  railroads  to  their  owners  on  terms  more 
expensive  to  the  people  than  those  in  force  when  rail- 
road-baiting began. 

Since  the  state  creates  the  corporation,  one  might 
infer  complete  mastery.  Actually,  the  relationship  is 
more  that  of  a  stout  and  querulous  old  mother  to  her 
lusty,  ambitious  sons.  Corporations  cannot  be  too 
closely  bound  to  their  parent  without  defeating  the 
purposes  of  their  creation.  For  one  thing,  the  state 
cannot  find  elsewhere  revenue  so  easily;  the  old  wo- 
man calls  upon  her  sons  to  bring  taxes  to  her  lap,  and 
they  come  bearing,  not  only  taxes,  but  other  gifts  also, 
strange  gifts,  things  which  the  stout  parent  never 


n6  THE     IRON     MAN 

dreamed  of  having  —  new  fruits  of  faith  and  vision 
and  toil  which,  in  due  time,  become  the  accepted  diet 
of  a  public  forgetful  of  their  origin.  In  this  welter  of 
novelty,  the  parent  state  clings  stubbornly  to  tradi- 
tions and  principles ;  she  may  exult  in  the  revenue  her 
sons  deliver  and  the  gifts  they  bring:  but  her  massive 
common  sense  enables  her  to  see  that  such  are  of  little 
worth  if  justice  and  mercy,  and  the  common  weal  of 
her  people,  be  sacrificed  in  the  scramble  for  wealth 
and  power.  One  can  fancy  her  saying  with  a  discon- 
certing naivete : 

"This  is  the  stuff  of  life  you  bring  me;  but  it  is  not 
life.  I  need  these  things;  but,  after  all,  they  are  not 
enough.  I  can't  tell  you  just  what  to  do,  over  and 
above  bringing  in  my  taxes ;  but  I  have  no  hesitancy  in 
telling  you  what  you  may  not  do,  as  light  comes  to  me. 
In  order  to  keep  you  fit,  I  put  you  more  or  less  on  your 
honor ;  and  I  hope  you  will  always  behave  better  than 
I  know  how  to  make  you  behave.  You  move  so  fast, 
you  really  keep  me  quite  fuddled ;  but  every  rule  I  lay 
down  I  mean  for  the  best,  anyway." 

In  the  adjustment  to  be  reached  between  public 
content  and  private  interest,  the  most  hopeful  factor 
is  the  corporation.  In  itself  a  compromise  between 
two  instincts  running  constant  in  human  nature,  — 
the  desire  for  gain  and  the  desire  for  security,  —  the 
corporation  is  the  instrument  through  which  the  so- 
cializing process  now  under  way  may  work  out  most 
comfortably.  It  is  a  regulated  vehicle  of  group-activ- 
ity amenable  to  political  control.  Intangible  and  im- 
personal, existing  only  in  the  contemplation  of  the 


THE     IRON     MAN  117 

law,  it  possesses  a  superhuman  virility,  rising  superior 
to  death,  accident,  and  many  ills  which  beset  frail 
humans.  Given  sound  management  and  an  acquies- 
cent state,  corporations  may  live  forever.  They  par. 
take  to  this  extent  of  the  static  nature  of  the  parent; 
yet  are  far  more  flexible  in  getting  finite  things  done 
swiftly  and  cheaply.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are 
more  dependable  than  individuals.  They  escape  per- 
sonal bias,  wrath,  prejudice,  emotion;  their  nervous 
systems  react  keenly  to  but  one  set  of  stimuli  —  those 
of  profit  and  loss.  Still,  they  are  not  unresponsive  to 
public  opinion;  and  may  perhaps  be  controlled  more 
effectively  thereby  than  by  law.  The  public,  you  see, 
butters  their  bread. 

One  who  puts  forth  the  corporation  as  a  means  of 
grace  champions  an  institution  with  abundant  faults. 
Some  of  these  inhere  in  the  corporate  form ;  others,  the 
more  evident  and  galling,  are  less  serious  because  re- 
sulting from  decisions  of  persons  in  corporate  author- 
ity. The  more  important  of  these  lapses  may  be  dealt 
with  under  criminal  procedure ;  others  may  be  amelior- 
ated by  pressure  of  alert  public  opinion.  In  general, 
I  accept  Samuel  Fel ton's  verdict,  that  corporations, 
like  individuals,  prosper  in  degree  as  they  serve  the 
public  honestly  and  fairly. 

Corporations  have  been  described  as  "soulless," 
and  from  the  nature  of  their  legal  origin,  the  descrip- 
tion has  a  certain  validity.  But,  after  all,  "soul"  is 
impossible  of  satisfactory  definition.  There  is  no  room 
for  metaphysical  reflection  in  the  corporation;  yet,  if 
"soul"  be  the  source  of  faith,  —  "the  substance  of 


n8  THE     IRON     MAN 

things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen,"  — 
corporations  may  be  soulful,  since  through  them  men 
bring  visions  to  reality.  Daily  some  corporation  de- 
livers, after  a  long  obstacle-race,  a  message  of  achieve- 
ment to  its  waiting  Garcias  —  the  stockholders.  And 
if  "soul"  be  the  motive  behind  square  dealing  in  the 
market-place,  the  best  corporations  are  at  least  as 
soulful  as  the  best  individual  traders.  Littleness  and 
trickiness  are  boon  companions.  Where  policy  counts 
more  than  personality,  the  corporation  possesses  con- 
science ;  its  failures  to  play  fair  come  more  often  from 
heedlessness  than  from  design.  Its  stake  is  too  great 
for  meanness,  but  the  corporation  has  its  blind  side  — 
the  feelings. 

However,  the  case  for  the  recognition  of  the  cor- 
poration as  the  most  practical  way  out  of  the  present 
discord  rests  upon  more  solid  grounds  than  mere  feel- 
ing. Yet  with  all  its  faults,  the  corporation  is  the  most 
successful  agency  of  human  cooperation  yet  devised 
by  the  mind  of  man.  In  one  account  the  savings  and 
inheritances  of  thousands  are  massed  for  use ;  energies 
and  talents  of  masses  of  individuals  are  sifted  and  ap- 
plied intelligently  to  the  making  and  distributing  of 
intricate  goods  over  wide  areas.  Science  searches 
every  phase  of  business,  and  genius  climbs  the  ladder 
in  record  time.  In  an  age  tending  toward  socialization, 
with  a  people  much  preferring  even  predatory  indi- 
vidualism to  lifeless  state-control,  the  middle  course 
lies  in  the  path  of  group-organization,  midway  of 
which  we  find  the  corporation,  strongly  entrenched  in 
law  and  custom.  Consequently,  being  what  we  are, 


THE     IRON     MAN  119 

where  we  are,  let  us  use  the  corporation  in  the  social 
advance,  before  abandoning  it  for  the  untried,  and 
before  settling  down  in  discontented  acceptance  of 
things  as  they  are. 

Effectively  as  the  corporation  brings  individuals 
into  cooperation  for  economic  ends,  many  industrial 
activities,  proceeding  under  that  form,  strain  the  so- 
cial fabric,  and  thwart  the  play  of  the  human  spirit. 
Are  these  anti-social  by-products  inevitable?  Or  may 
they  not  be  overcome,  at  least  in  part,  by  guiding  the 
evolution  of  corporations  somewhat  away  from  direct 
and  immediate  profits,  and  toward  the  indirect  and 
deferred  profits  which  come  from  stability,  satisfied 
labor,  and  the  public  esteem?  For  this  man-made  and 
law-born  abstraction,  the  corporation,  has  been  in 
evolution  for  more  than  a  century,  is  considerably 
different  to-day  from  what  it  was  when  the  State  of 
New  York  passed  the  first  general  incorporation  act 
in  1811,  and  will  be  different  again  a  hundred  years 
hence,  no  doubt.    The  question  is  not,  Shall  the  cor- 
poration evolve?  but,   How  shall  it  evolve?     It  is 
somewhat  our  duty  to  see  that  it  evolves  toward 
eliminating  its  social  weaknesses  instead  of  toward 
strengthening  its  economic  excellencies,  since  compe- 
tition can  be  depended  upon  to  continue  amply  de- 
veloping the  latter. 

In  viewing  this  cooperative  star  of  the  first  magni- 
tude, one  notes  that  the  cooperators  move  on  different 
planes  and  hold  different  tenures.  The  common  work- 
man has  no  authority  and  no  security,  for  he  may  be 
dropped  from  the  pay-roll  without  notice;  whereas 


120  THE     IRON     MAN 

the  head  of  the  enterprise  has  authority  over  all  oper- 
atives, and  his  tenure  is  usually  subject  only  to  return- 
ing satisfactory  dividends.  The  chief  and  his  principal 
subordinates  know  that  security  on  the  job  depends 
primarily  upon  returning  service;  the  workers,  on  the 
contrary,  know  that  they  are  insecure.  They  may  be 
laid  off  for  good  reason  or  none  —  foreman's  prejudice, 
cancellation  of  contracts,  onset  of  business  depression. 
The  most  excellent  of  workers,  tragically  enough,  may 
have  the  ill  luck  to  place  himself  with  an  employer 
unequal  to  the  strain  of  competition.  This  fear  of  the 
future  haunts  the  common  man  in  industry  all  his 
days;  combating  it  is  one  of  the  chief  motives  of  his 
life,  —  a  motive  working  out  in  labor-organizations, 
savings  accounts,  domestic  worries,  and  shop  politics, 
—  good  and  bad  inextricably  mixed.  The  startling 
rise  in  suicide  within  these  twelve  difficult  months  is 
another  index  of  the  terror  that  workingmen  and 
workingwomen  face  when  they  lose  their  jobs.  Life 
itself  is  insecure,  and  insecurity  means  effort;  as  the 
saying  goes,  "  It  puts  the  fear  of  God  in  men's  hearts, 
and  makes  them  value  their  jobs."  A  measure  of  in- 
security is  essential  to  efficiency  —  I  know  these 
things  and  do  not  underrate  them.  Nevertheless, 
there  is  too  much  discrepancy  now  between  the  rela- 
tive security  of  the  boss  and  the  positive  insecurity  of 
the  worker. 

In  an  inquiry  of  this  sort  one  treads  a  narrow  trail 
between  the  ethical  height  and  the  economic  abyss. 
Every  attempt  to  scale  the  height  involves  a  risk  of 
falling  into  the  abyss,  since  economic  law  is  as  inevi- 


THE     IRON     MAN  121 

table  in  its  operations  as  gravitation.  The  bankruptcy 
chasm  is  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of  reputations  and 
institutions  once  great  and  too  greatly  daring.  Con- 
sequently, he  who  presumes  to  chart  a  course  must  do 
so  warily,  and  without  assumption  of  final  authority. 

As  a  starting-point  let  us  say  that  the  able  and  sat- 
isfactory employee  should  hold  his  job  as  securely  as 
the  boss  holds  his.  That  eliminates,  at  the  outset, 
those  of  low  efficiency  in  group-operation,  whether 
through  inexperience,  unsteadiness,  or  disloyalty  to 
group-interests.  Such  must  ever  remain  on  the  margin 
of  employment.  But,  unfortunately,  as  things  go,  de- 
pressions recur  in  which  even  ably  managed  corpora- 
tions must  reduce  their  staffs,  in  order  to  remain 
solvent.  So  our  first  adventures  toward  industrial 
security  should  be  concerned  with  these  higher  human 
values. 

Depressions  recur  so  relentlessly,  that  statesmen 
seek  relief  in  state  control  of  credits.  Theoretically 
the  state,  through  the  banks,  may  check  expansion 
in  brisk  times  by  withholding  credits  before  the  dan- 
ger-point of  expansion  is  reached,  and  stimulate 
employment  in  dull  times  by  granting  credits  before 
the  ebb  of  economic  exhaustion  has  been  reached.  On 
the  sensible  theory  that  what  goes  up  must  come 
down,  it  is  argued  that  business  can  be  depressed  no 
further  below  normal  that  it  has  risen  aboye  normal ; 
and  that,  consequently,  if  the  enthusiasm  of  enter- 
prisers is  checked  by  the  state-brake  upon  credits,  the 
slide  into  the  vale  of  depression  will  be  checked  at  a 
point  where  business  can  climb  out  with  slight  assist- 


122  THE     IRON     MAN 

ance.  Theoretically,  and  perhaps  practically,  there- 
fore, the  restraining  influence  of  the  Federal  Reserve 
Bank  is  likely  to  be  of  social  value. 

Fairly  and  intelligently  applied,  —  and  we  can 
be  entirely  sure  of  neither,  —  central  control  of 
credits  should  render  jobs  more  secure,  by  reducing 
the  chances  that  the  efficient  boss  may  be  requiredjto 
lay  off  his  able  workmen.  But  complete  security  in 
employment,  or  any  other  phase  of  business,  can  be 
bought  only  at  the  price  of  stagnation.  Commercial 
equilibrium  is  impossible  until  all  the  dynamic  forces 
in  human  society  are  under  control.  Trade  is  born  of 
the  instincts,  and  draws  from  all  their  manifestations, 
big  and  little.  Politicians,  diplomats,  and  generals, 
all  had  their  fingers  in  the  business  pot  which  boiled 
over  in  1919  and  boiled  low  in  1921.  Markets,  in  the 
last  analysis,  are  made  in  child-bed.  The  instincts 
that  lead  our  people  to  produce  and  consume  goods, 
to  plan  and  dominate,  to  save  and  safeguard,  defy 
all  attempts  at  standardization;  and  as  long  as  Man 
shall  do,  can  he  be  kept  from  occasionally  over-doing? 
Even  if  we  should  compass  the  miracle  of  dead-level 
business,  as  an  export  nation  we  should  still  need  to 
accommodate  ourselves  to  the  ups  and  downs  of  trade 
overseas,  in  localities  where  our  credit  writ  does  not 
run.  Conversely,  citizens  of  a  state  which  binds  busi- 
ness too  closely  through  credit-control  cannot  long 
hold  their  own  in  open  markets  against  traders  from 
more  elastic  business  nations.  So,  while  the  state  may 
reduce  insecurity,  it  can  bind  commercial  energies 
closely  only  at  a  price  too  great  for  folk  of  our  kind  to 


THE     IRON     MAN  123 

pay.  We  must  look  further  before  exhausting  all 
the  possibilities  of  harmonizing  security  in  toil  with 
industrial  effectiveness. 

During  the  recent  depression,  certain  corporations 
pursued  interesting  deviations  from  normal  business 
practice.  Departments,  in  effect  courts,  were  set  up 
to  try  cases  of  dismissal.  Instead  of  accepting  the 
foreman's  word  on  lay-offs,  the  company  delegated 
authority  to  qualified  persons  to  judge  each  case,  not 
only  on  its  economic  merits,  but  also  with  reference  to 
social  significance.  A  married  man  was  likely  to  be 
retained  in  preference  to  a  single  man,  and  a  single 
man  with  dependents  in  preference  to  an  unentangled 
individual.  Plants  which  might  have  been  run  more 
economically  on  full  time,  with  fewer  helpers,  were 
run  on  part  time  with  more,  to  stretch  the  pay-roll  as 
far  as  possible.  Managements  and  technical  staffs 
shared  wage-cuts  in  exact  proportion  to  the  men, 
without  reference  to  their  higher  economic  signifi- 
cance. These  shifts  evidence  ethics  at  work  with  eco- 
nomics, in  the  emergency,  to  divide  loss  and  reduce 
insecurity.  Such  innovations  have  their  economic 
limits,  and  at  best  are  suited  only  for  particular  con- 
ditions through  short  periods. 

Two  widely  advertised  cure-alls  for  unemployment 
are  state  insurance  and  public  works.  Countries  thor- 
oughly industrialized  may  have  no  other  recourse  than 
state  insurance;  but  even  there  such  programmes  in- 
volve severe  strains.  Funds  must  be  built  up  through 
taxation  in  busy  years,  to  cope  with  the  lean  years, 
thus  creating  a  large  "frozen  credit"  applicable^in 


i24  THE     IRON     MAN 

the  emergency  to  buy  subsistence  —  food,  fuel,  cloth- 
ing, and  shelter  —  for  those  out  of  work  and  their 
dependents.  These  "out-of-works"  form  merely  a 
part  of  the  whole  body  of  the  nation,  yet  their  doles 
are  subtracted  by  taxation  from  the  earnings  of  the 
whole.  Moreover,  in  any  depression,  the  majority  of 
the  out-of-works  are  sure  to  be  the  less  effective 
workers  and  least  valuable  citizens  —  the  relatively 
inefficient,  irresponsible,  and  thriftless.  Others,  of 
course,  will  be  caught  short  in  the  slump;  but  these 
down-at-the-heel  folk  will  predominate.  Of  these, 
many  will  loaf  on  a  subsistence  basis  rather  than  seek 
employment.  To  reduce  the  individual's  incentive  to 
seek  employment  is  a  blow  at  the  national  economy, 
because  every  day  that  a  potential  producer  is  idle 
means  just  so  much  loss  to  himself,  the  community, 
and  the  state.  Emergence  from  depression  requires 
redistribution  of  labor-power  among  plants,  industries, 
and  localities,  on  the  basis  of  most  economical  use.  As 
long  as  any  person  is  subsidized  to  stay  where  he  is, 
sure  of  support  until  his  former  job  is  ready,  readjust- 
ment lags.  The  state  can  protect  itself  against  the 
economic  backwash  of  state  insurance  only  by  making 
its  acceptance  contingent  upon  involuntary  servitude 
—  the  power  to  force  men  to  work  when  and  where 
the  state  dictates.  For  us,  that  is  impossible.  If  the 
country  were  to  continue  industrial  growth  at  the 
old  rate,  the  government  might  be  forced  to  accept 
the  burden  of  unemployment  insurance  without  re- 
dress; such  is  the  peril  of  democracy;  but  as  all  signs 
point  toward  a  gradual  stabilizing  of  industry  at  or 


THE     IRON     MAN  125 

below  its  present  limits,  the  issue  may  never  be  forced. 

Prosecution  of  public  works,  when  private  work  is 
scarce,  presents  a  fairer  face  to  the  analyst.  Maximum 
effectiveness  requires,  however,  careful  planning. 
Plans  must  be  prepared  for  deferable  works,  funds 
accumulated,  and  skeleton  organizations  maintained, 
which  may  be  expanded  rapidly  by  adding  unskilled 
labor  as  men  are  thrown  out  of  their  regular  employ- 
ments. Wages  should  be  sufficiently  below  industrial 
rates  to  encourage  prompt  return  to  industrial  em- 
ployment. Under  such  conditions  morale  would  be 
chronically  low,  and  organization  unsteady.  The  pub- 
lic would  probably  pay  as  much  for  the  job  as  it  would 
have  paid  in  brisk  times,  at  high  wages.  The  process 
is  palliative  rather  than  economical,  and  disappoint- 
ment easily  may  follow  too  great  reliance  thereon. 

Fundamentally,  insecurity  of  work- tenure  in  indus- 
try is  no  labor  problem  at  all,  because  the  boss  is 
powerless  to  correct  it  under  present  conditions.  Since 
it  transcends  the  employer's  power  of  adjustment, 
unemployment  is  rather  a  social  problem,  with  roots 
running  back  to  feudalism.  In  English  industrial  his- 
tory, of  which  our  development  is  an  extension,  it 
traces  directly  to  the  enclosures  of  common  lands,  to 
which  village  workers  had  access  for  subsistence  when 
cut  off  from  wage-jobs.  Insecurity,  indeed,  is  the  other 
side  of  the  shield  of  freedom ;  a  free  man  is  free  either 
to  stand  or  fall ;  a  bond  holds  a  man  up  in  distress  just 
as  it  holds  him  down  in  prosperity.  Every  factor, 
therefore,  which  has  contributed  to  turn  dependence 
into  independence  and  independence  into  interde- 


126  THE     IRON     MAN 

pendence,  is  in  part  responsible  for  the  insecurity  of  in- 
dustrial employment.  Thus,  a  reorientation  of  indus- 
try, in  which  all  those  factors  participate,  is  required  in 
order  to  ameliorate  naturally  their  resultant  insecurity. 

For  individuals  to  stand  alone,  economically,  be- 
comes more  difficult.  To  be  useful,  a  man  must  ally 
himself,  directly  or  indirectly,  with  others  in  toil.  In 
large-scale  industry  this  community  of  interest  in  pro- 
ducing and  marketing  of  goods  engages  many  thou- 
sands in  well-defined,  legally  functioning  organiza- 
tions. Here,  obviously,  is  a  rock  upon  which  to  build. 

At  root,  the  fundamentals  of  subsistence  are  food, 
clothing,  shelter,  and  fuel.  Lack  of  these  is  what  men 
fear  most  when  their  jobs  go  by  the  board.  They  can 
dispense  with  comforts  and  luxuries  for  a  time,  with- 
out damage  and  even  with  benefit;  will  do  so  gladly 
when  their  enthusiasms  are  roused,  as  in  war.  Given 
these,  a  man  can  hold  out ;  his  standard  of  living  may 
fall  uncomfortably,  still  he  and  his  will  live  to  see 
better  times,  no  matter  how  low  prices  fall. 

The  farmer  has  his  living;  he  can  survive  on  his 
produce;  can  warm  himself  with  wood;  the  landlord 
is  not  hounding  him  for  rent  from  month  to  month : 
and,  if  need  be,  he  can  wear  homespun  like  Isak  of 
Sellenraa.  That  explains  why,  in  pinches,  the  country- 
side can  and  does  absorb  so  many  marginal  workers 
driven  from  the  mills.  The  boys  from  the  factory 
towns,  pushed  back  to  the  old  homestead,  find  plain 
fare  and  ample  space  —  plenty  of  both,  such  as  they 
are ;  and  if  Nature  has  endowed  them  with  brains,  time 
to  think. 


THE     IRON     MAN  127 

There  was  a  time,  in  England,  when  marginal 
workers  had  their  own  land  —  common  land.  When 
wages  were  lacking,  they  worked  for  subsistence.  The 
shift  was  easy,  because  the  industries  were  village 
concerns.  Then,  new  tools  were  developed,  and  be- 
came concentrated  in  the  towns.  Means  of  industrial 
production  were  shifted  from  villages  to  towns,  com- 
mon lands  enclosed,  the  marginal  worker's  refuge 
upon  the  land  destroyed;  and  thenceforward,  down 
to  the  present,  insecurity  in  labor  has  kept  pace  with 
urban  development. 

Ever  since  industry  took  to  the  towns  and  set  sail 
toward  intense  specialization  and  automatization,  its 
insecurities  have  impelled  revivals  of  communal  pro- 
duction. Idealists  like  Robert  Owen  have  tried  to 
reestablish  the  partnership  between  industry  and 
agriculture  by  taking  industrial  tools  back  to  the  land. 
Mostly  these  experiments  failed:  some  soon,  through 
inability  of  the  cooperators  to  agree  on  division  of 
power  and  profits;  others  faded  away  unmourned, 
through  sheer  stagnation.  They  could  not  maintain 
virility  in  uniformity.  If  the  vital  spark  of  human 
rivalry  won,  the  commune  was  destroyed ;  if  uniform- 
ity won,  the  commune  decayed,  because  the  spur  to 
adaptability  had  been  cast  outside  along  with  the 
rebels.  The  root-cause  of  break-up  or  decay  was 
chronic  inability  to  pro-rate  rewards  and  responsi- 
bilities according  to  the  economic  significance  of  the 
several  producers.  If  the  community  were  democratic, 
each  shared  alike  produce  and  responsibility.  None 
save  dullards  were  completely  satisfied ;  their  superiors 


128  THE     IRON     MAN 

bickered  the  project  into  oblivion.  If  the  community 
were  patriarchal,  it  became  too  wooden  to  meet  the 
dynamic  environment  set  up  by  its  neighbors  —  free 
men  cooperating  in  government,  toil,  and  trade. 

The  weakness  of  the  commune,  at  bottom,  is  its 
inability  to  measure  and  reward  services.  Given  a 
cooperating  group  possessed  of  ability  and  means  so  to 
discriminate,  there  is  no  reason  why  such  a  group  could 
not  reunite  industry  and  agriculture  on  an  efficient 
basis.  This  the  corporation  might  do.  It  already  re- 
wards many  of  its  workers  on  the  basis  of  their  eco- 
nomic significance  through  varying  work-rates ;  and  the 
ease  with  which  reward  may  be  apportioned  through 
shares-ownership  would  permit  even  adventitious 
earnings  to  be  distributed  with  far  more  regard  to  the 
individual  contribution  to  the  joint  product  and  in- 
dividual stake  in  the  enterprise,  than  the  commune 
possibly  could  do  on  its  one-man,  one-mouth,  one- vote 
basis.  Theoretically,  a  corporation  owningland  enough 
to  provide  its  workers  with  fundamental  subsistence 
could  maintain  its  organization  intact  at  all  times;  a 
skeleton  organization  of  experienced  farmers  could 
cultivate  extensively  for  profit  during  brisk  times,  with 
details  of  extra  helpers  from  the  mill  during  harvest; 
while  in  depressions  the  land  could  be  cultivated  in- 
tensively by  more  laborers.  Farming  in  its  major  ac- 
tivities is  seasonal,  and  certain  corporations  would 
find  it  economical  to  make  most  of  their  factory  produce 
in  the  winter,  devoting  the  summer  to  agriculture. 
This  seasonal  shift,  in  itself,  would  be  an  escape  from 
monotony,  a  step  forward  in  both  mental  and  physical 


THE     IRON     MAN  129 

hygiene,  for  the  workers  on  automatic  machinery. 
In  accepting  the  back-to-the-land  movement  for  the 
corporation  as  the  vital  element  in  regaining  a  reason- 
able security  for  labor,  one  need  not  push  the  idea  to 
absurd  lengths.  Manifestly  such  a  move  would  be 
illogical  for  many  corporations ;  moreover,  in  order  to 
relieve  the  social  tension  caused  by  insecurity,  it  must 
be  remembered  that  only  the  marginal  workers  —  at 
the  most  twenty  per  cent  —  need  protection  against 
the  "downs"  of  industry,  and  then  only  for  limited 
periods.  The  efficient  employees  of  efficient  employers, 
even  in  the  darkest  days,  continue  to  gain  subsistence 
at  their  accustomed  tasks,  since  trade  never  stops 
entirely.  Certain  lines  of  production,  moreover,  es- 
pecially those  in  which  raw  material  is  cheap,  fabri- 
cation simple,  product  durable,  and  of  relatively  stable 
economic  significance,  reduce  their  staffs  only  slightly 
in  ordinary  depressions,  because  they  are  safe  in  stock- 
ing up  heavily  on  a  low- wage  level  against  the  cer- 
tainty of  renewed  demand.  On  the  other  hand,  pro- 
ducers of  goods  containing  a  luxury  element,  which 
causes  rapid  fluctuations  in  the  economic  significance 
of  those  goods  in  the  market,  take  heavy  risks  in 
amassing  surpluses.  Workers  in  such  industries  are 
relatively  insecure.  Producers  of  such  goods,  however, 
have  much  at  stake  in  maintaining  their  organizations 
in  shape  to  take  quick  advantage  of  market  oppor- 
tunities; hence  it  is  in  such  lines  that  industry  logi- 
cally may  be  expected  to  leave  the  city  and  come  to 
grips  on  the  land  with  a  basic  difficulty  of  modern 
industry  —  insecurity  for  labor. 


130  THE     IRON     MAN 

The  corporate  form,  by  making  feasible  the  sharing 
of  rewards  according  to  economic  significance,   re- 
moves one  of  the  barriers  separating  industry  and 
agriculture.  The  automatic  machine  removes  another 
—  the  skill-barrier.  Labor  now  flows,  as  we  have  seen, 
from  country  to  city,  from  farm  to  mill,  and  back 
again.    While  the  industrial  process,  as  a  whole,  has 
been  growing  more  complex,  the  contribution  of  the 
individual  machine-tender  to  that  process  has  been 
growing  more  simple.  When  tools  were  simple  things, 
they  were  close  to  the  soil :   now  that  the  tools  them- 
selves incorporate  the  skill-function,  their  operation 
is  simple  enough  to  make  land-labor  efficient  beside 
them,  and  vice  versa.   Their  demand  upon  labor  intel- 
ligence is  no  greater,  probably  less,  than  that  of  the 
simple  tools  of  the  pre-industrial  era.    Hence  modern 
tools  can  be  brought  back  to  the  land,  under  certain 
conditions  and  in  certain  industries,  with  no  consid- 
erable loss  of  economic  efficiency,  and,  in  some  cases, 
with  definite  gains  in  efficiency.    Given  just  and  ef- 
ficient transportation,  fair  railway  rates,  and  good 
roads,   many  sorts  of  goods  may  be  produced  as 
cheaply,  or  even  more  cheaply,  in  villages  within  fifty 
miles  of  the  swollen  town  as  in  the  town  itself.    One 
sees  already  the  beginnings  of  industrial  migrations 
from  large  cities  to  towns  and  villages  —  shifts  in- 
spired by  economic  motives  solely.     This  tendency 
seems  likely  to  develop  slowly,  until  enough  industries 
have  reoriented  themselves  as  regards  subsistence  to 
reduce  the  insecurity  of  the  whole  body  of  labor.  These 
questions,  the  most  fascinating  in  the  entire  range  of 


THE     IRON     MAN  131 

this  inquiry,  are  being  elaborated  and  closely  analyzed 
by  my  friend  and  coworker,  Ernest  F.  Lloyd,  who 
was  kind  enough  to  place  the  fruits  of  his  long  business 
experience  and  later  research  freely  at  my  disposal. 

Corporations,  the  economic  significance  of  whose 
product  fluctuates  widely,  are  likely  to  accept  this 
insecurity  phase  of  their  labor  problem  seriously  in 
the  future.  One  can  picture  a  landed  industrial  cor- 
poration taking  on  its  men  as  potential  stockholders, 
as  cooperators.  Its  selective  process  would  be  care- 
fully ordered  with  reference  to  mental  as  well  as 
physical  hygiene ;  an  effort  to  assay  the  whole  man  as 
well  as  his  muscles  and  senses.  The  worker  would  be 
picked,  not  so  much  because  he  is  needed,  as  because 
he  is  wanted.  Attention  would  be  paid,  not  only  to 
his  capacity  for  work,  but  also  to  his  dependability 
as  a  citizen  and  comrade,  his  outlook  on  life,  his  in- 
fluence upon,  and  acceptability  to,  his  fellow  work- 
men and  their  families,  with  whom  he  associates  in 
leisure.  His  introduction  into  the  shop  would  be  in 
the  nature  of  an  initiation,  the  binding  of  one  to  many, 
the  acceptance  of  enduring  responsibilities,  the  pledg- 
ing of  one's  character  to  the  upholding  of  a  group- 
character,  a  connection  not  lightly  to  be  entered  upon, 
because  likely  to  endure  for  long. 

Such  a  corporation  —  in  effect  a  work-clan — would 
necessarily  be  interested  in  how  its  employees  lived 
and  played  —  in  sufficiency  and  decency  of  housing, 
and  ordering  of  community  recreation.  In  short,  such 
a  corporation  would  be,  like  the  commune,  a  self- 
sufficient  grouping  of  self-respecting  folk;  but  in  cer- 


132  THE     IRON     MAN 

tain  vital  respects  it  would  be  unlike  any  commune 
known  to  history.  It  would  possess  superior  tools,  and 
show  a  greater  variety  of  incomes  and  living  standards ; 
but  more  distinguishing  would  be  its  division  of  owner- 
ship and  reward  upon  the  basis  of  individual,  trans- 
ferable shares.  Stockholders,  by  delegation  of  author- 
ity as  now,  would  admit  individuals  to,  or  dismiss 
them  from,  membership;  but  the  dismissed  would 
continue  to  own  his  shares  and  their  accumulations 
during  employment,  with  full  rights  of  sale.  In  order, 
however,  to  protect  the  group  in  such  transfers,  cer- 
tain adjustments  in  corporate  law  would  have  to  be 
made. 

Since  economic  development  was  but  one  of  several 
factors  contributing  to  the  growth  of  industrial  in- 
security, the  ameliorating  process  must  embody  other 
adjustments.  Corporations  are  creatures  of  the  law, 
and  law  has  limited  as  well  as  promoted  their  develop- 
ment. Consequently,  there  are  steps  toward  security 
which  can  be  accomplished  only  through  legal  revi- 
sions. Present  legal  barriers  to  the  extension  of  the 
cooperative  principle  inside  the  corporation  must  be 
qualified;  and  in  this  release  public  approval  of  the 
newer  concept  is  the  logical  compelling  force. 

The  present  legal  concept  of  the  corporation,  ar- 
rived at  by  applying  the  shares  idea,  with  strict  logic,  to 
private  property,  vests  the  reality  of  the  corporation 
in  the  holders  of  its  common  shares.  The  public  con- 
cept, on  the  other  hand,  more  often  identifies  the  cor- 
poration with  its  outstanding  personality:  United 
States  Steel  is  Judge  Gary;  Standard  Oil  persists  in 


THE     IRON     MAN  133 

being  Rockefeller.  The  workers  conceive  that  reality, 
however,  as  located  in  the  front  office,  from  which 
proceeds  power  to  hire  and  fire.  But  the  man  in  the 
front  office  may  see  the  reality  of  the  corporation  as 
hanging  in  the  air  above  scattered  directors,  who  oc- 
casionally meet,  hear  reports,  and  decide  policies.  Or, 
if  his  directors  merely  ratify  his  recommendations,  his 
situation  may  be  such  that  he  knows  the  corporate 
court  of  last  resort  to  be  the  banker  who  discounts  the 
corporation's  accommodation  paper,  and  floats  its 
securities  among  his  clientele,  vouching  for  the  cor- 
poration to  the  financial  world  and  the  saving  public. 
The  great  "  Class  A"  corporations  would  be  impossible 
without  him.  But,  the  banker  is  a  permissive  and  con- 
trolling agent,  not  a  positive,  constructive,  and  operat- 
ing force,  except  when  he  steps  upon  dangerous  ground 
outside  of  his  fiduciary  relation. 

All  these  views,  in  the  intense  light  of  the  present, 
appear  a  little  out-of-date ;  but  perhaps  the  most  anti- 
quated of  all  is  the  judicial  view.  When  common  stock 
in  great  corporations  is  sold  on  exchanges  as  freely  as 
sugar  in  corner  groceries,  when  lists  of  common-stock 
holders  vary  day  by  day,  and  only  a  fraction  of  those 
stockholders  profess  to  know  anything  about  the  proc- 
esses and  policies  of  the  corporations,  it  seems  a  bit 
old-fashioned  for  the  law  to  point  to  that  shifting  mob 
of  humans,  and  say :  ' '  There 's  your  corporation,  each 
according  to  his  holding."  When  common  stock  repre- 
sents the  company's  assets  unimpaired  by  mortgage, 
there  is  wisdom  in  that  view;  but  the  fact  is  that 
nearly  all  large  corporations  have  pledged  their  plants 


i34  THE     IRON     MAN 

as  security  on  borrowings  up  to  the  value  of  those 
holdings  at  forced  sale.  What  common-stock  holders 
own  is  usually  a  slender  equity  in  the  property,  and 
a  good- will  which  may  easily  become  no  good.  In 
addition,  they  have  the  gamble  of  future  earnings. 
Expectations  as  to  the  amount  of  those  excess  earn- 
ings set  the  market-value  of  common  stocks.  To  in- 
sist that  those  standing  upon  this  raw  edge  of  adven- 
ture, and  voting  by  proxy  "sight  unseen,"  are  the 
ones  who  hold  power  of  purse  over  the  nation's  in- 
dustries and  nearly  half  its  people,  is  simply  not  true 
in  any  broad  economic,  social,  or  political  sense. 

The  fact  is  that  the  corporation  is  the  corporation. 
Not  in  the  part,  but  in  the  whole,  resides  its  reality. 
Not  alone  capital,  but  also  labor,  give  life  and  mean- 
ing to  the  enterprise ;  neither  common-stock  holders  by 
themselves,  nor  managers  by  themselves,  are  the  cor- 
poration; but  all  who  have  funds  invested  therein  in 
any  form,  and  likewise  all  who  work  for  the  corpora- 
tion —  all  these,  cooperating  on  the  bases  of  innumer- 
able bargains  under  the  law  of  the  land,  make  up  the 
reality  of  the  corporation.  Their  totality  is  the  cor- 
poration. Individuals  pass  in  and  out;  the  institution 
inherits  their  good  work  and  bad,  gradually  acquiring 
a  code  and  method,  a  group-personality.  The  intan- 
gible, impersonal  being  becomes  a  living  thing,  which 
dies  when  taken  apart.  Yet  so  important  are  these 
business  groups  to  state  and  people,  that  the  extinc- 
tion of  a  great  corporation  is  a  calamity.  As  in  the 
passing  of  a  feudal  barony,  many  must  shift  uncom- 
fortably, in  perplexity,  and  oft  in  woe. 


THE     IRON     MAN  135 

The  state,  at  present,  guards  the  public  to  some 
extent  against  these  difficulties  in  respect  to  corpora- 
tions classed  as  public  utilities.  These  must  operate 
at  all  hazards;  give  service  even  at  a  loss;  the  mails 
must  move  in  time  of  strike.  The  public  stake  in  these 
operations  is  so  heavy,  their  continuance  so  vital  to 
civilized  life,  that  the  state,  to  preserve  itself,  insists 
that  their  wheels  keep  moving.  Every  year  the  con- 
cept of  what  constitutes  a  public  utility  is  broadened. 
The  United  States  uses  the  courts  and  the  military  to 
keep  coal  coming  out  of  the  ground,  because  coal  is 
now  a  political  as  well  as  an  economic  necessity. 

One  of  the  first  and  most  significant  steps  toward 
writing  into  law  the  fundamental  and  common  in- 
terest in  continuous  corporate  functioning  was  taken 
in  the  Canadian  Industrial  Disputes  Investigation  Act 
of  1907.  Canadian  corporations  performing  services 
or  delivering  goods  essential  to  the  public  welfare  may 
not  lock  out  their  men  without  investigation  by  the 
state,  due  procedure,  delays,  and  public  hearings. 
Employees  of  such  corporations  may  not  walk  out 
without  meeting  the  same  conditions.  This  estab- 
lishes the  public  interest  as  paramount  in  certain  es- 
sentials. The  more  recent  Kansas  Industrial  Court 
goes  a  step  further  in  the  same  direction,  in  declaring 
the  production  and  distribution  of  food,  fuel,  and 
clothing  to  be  invested  with  a  public  interest  so  vital 
that  (in  effect)  continuity  of  operation  shall  apply 
thereto. 

The  line  between  public  utilities  and  other  corpora- 
tions simply  will  not  stay  put.    Of  late,  the  United 


136  THE     IRON     MAN 

States  government  and   several   of  its  subdivisions 
have  handled  labor  crises  in  coal-mining  as  if  the 
mines  were  public  utilities,  —  which  they  are,  in  fact, 
—  while  avoiding  establishing  them  as  such  in  law. 
In  due  time,  no  doubt,  law  will  follow  fact  in  this  re- 
spect, as  in  others.    And  if  a  coal-mine  shall  be  kept 
open  despite  the  labor  and  capital  directly  involved, 
why  not  other  enterprises  producing  goods  and  serv- 
ices vital  to  the  public?    In  general,  I  think,  every 
corporation  employing  enough  labor  and  capital  to 
bring  wares  or  services  to  market  in  any  considerable 
quantity  is,  and  ought  to  be  rated,  a  public  utility.   If 
this  seems  too  broad  a  generalization,  the  way  to  con- 
strict it  is  to  refuse  corporate  charters  to  business  or- 
ganizations so  minute  in  size  that  their  operation  or 
decease  presents  no  difficulty  to  consumers  or  the 
community.    As  a  matter  of  fact,  corporate  charters 
are  too  freely  granted  by  most  of  the  states  —  a  laxity 
which  results  in  promotion  scandals  on  the  one  hand, 
and  in  individuals  hiding  behind  the  limited  liability 
safeguard,  on  the  other.   The  mere  acceptance  of  the 
principle  that  every  corporation  is  a  public  utility, 
and  a  means  toward  group-cooperation  and  subject  to 
control  as  such,  would  go  far  toward  correcting  these 
current  abuses  of  corporate  provisions. 

If  the  foregoing  seems  a  shocking  invasion  of  the 
institution  of  private  property,  beware  of  what  is  to 
follow !  I  accept  the  institution  of  private  property  as 
an  obvious  result  of  human  instincts  and  a  valuable 
motive-force  in  civilization.  I  would  as  soon  think  of 
quarreling  with  it  as  with  a  result  of  gravitation.  Yet 


THE     IRON     MAN  137 

the  institution  of  private  property  is  merely  an  ad- 
justment between  private  and  public  interests,  per- 
sonal and  social  instincts.  Where  government  owner- 
ship promises  any  pronounced  social  advantage,  let 
it  be  applied.  But  warily,  for  government  is  such  a 
feckless  manager,  that  it  is  idle  to  push  the  public- 
utility  theory  of  the  corporation  far  enough  to  include 
all  the  means  of  production.  However,  in  order  that 
corporations  may  work  out  to  the  ultimate  their  po- 
tentialities for  cooperation,  some  group-grip  upon 
private  capital  industrially  employed  is  essential. 

At  bedrock,  successful  cooperation  in  industry  de- 
pends upon  having  something  to  divide.  A  cooperative 
enterprise,  in  which  all  workers  share  upon  the  basis 
of  discoverable  economic  significance,  would  be  as 
dependent  for  discipline  and  harmony  upon  the  re- 
turns from  its  labors  as  a  corporation  in  which  workers 
have  no  share.  Brains  must  be  compensated  in  one 
way  or  another,  interest  paid  on  invested  capital, 
funds  set  aside  against  contingencies.  The  worker 
who  pays  in  a  hundred  dollars  wants  his  per  cent  as 
much  as  or  more  than  the  outside  investor  who  risks 
his  thousands.  However,  the  worker  has  contributed 
somewhat  more  than  the  outsider  toward  the  creation 
of  that  dividend.  It  is  difficult  to  measure  exactly  the 
contribution  of  any  individual's  brain  or  brawn,  study 
or  labor-pain,  to  any  corporate  result,  and  compensate 
it  exactly  on  the  pay-roll.  Few  employers  make  the 
effort ;  they  buy  their  labor  in  the  open  market,  where 
men  are  under  pressure  to  sell  their  time.  So  it  may  be 
said  that  corporate  earnings  contain  a  leakage  which 


138  THE     IRON     MAN 

labor  has  lost,  and  capital  has  gained,  an  adventitious 
profit,  not  normally  by  any  means  as  large  as  extrem- 
ists claim,  but  something  over  and  above  the  rental 
value  of  the  money  used,  figured  at  the  "going  rate." 
The  quarrel  over  the  division  of  profits  is  serious  only 
as  it  applies  to  this  indefinite  element  in  the  industrial 
equation,  since  employees  generally  recognize  that 
capital  must  secure  a  reasonable  reward,  else  there  is 
no  incentive  to  save  and  no  capital  to  hire. 

Obviously  the  workers  in  any  corporate  group  —  I 
make  no  distinction  between  office  and  shop  —  should 
get  this  leakage,  if  a  sane  method  of  recovering  and  dis- 
tributing it  can  be  found,  short  of  upsetting  the  wage- 
system.  To  this  end  I  believe,  in  common  with  my 
friend  Lloyd,  that  corporations  henceforth  chartered 
should  be  vested  with  the  right  of  eminent  domain 
over  their  common  stock;  empowered,  that  is,  to  buy 
such  stock  from  non-employees  at  its  intrinsic  worth, 
whenever  this  class  of  security  is  desired  for  re-sale 
to  employees  and  none  is  available  at  unforced  sale. 
This  would  restrain  the  speculation  that  irritates  labor 
so  acutely,  and  so  often  embarrasses  conservative 
managers  as  well,  by  divesting  industrial  capital  of 
its  entrepreneur  function  and  recognizing  it  frankly 
for  what  it  has  become  —  a  commodity.  This  would 
give  the  men  behind  the  goods  assured  opportunity  to 
increase  reward  through  sharing  adventitious  profit, 
to  the  extent  that  thrift  or  efficiency  gives  them  con- 
trol over  common  stock.  Corporate  rights  to  recall 
stock  for  cooperative  ends  might  be  abused,  and  safe- 
guards would  have  to  be  thrown  around  any  plan ;  but 


THE     IRON     MAN  139 

on  the  theory  that  most  men  and  most  corporations 
are  honest,  the  apparent  advantages  recommend  a 
trial.  Once  capitalists  realize  the  greater  safety  of  in- 
vestment in  enterprises  binding  employees  closely  to 
themselves  through  stock-ownership,  the  way  will  be 
cleared  for  setting  up  a  no-par-value  common  stock, 
acquirable  in  whole,  eventually,  by  the  working  group 
and  sharing  control  with  invested  capital  on  terms 
mutually  agreeable  and  well  denned.  Leeway,  of  course, 
should  be  left  by  the  law,  in  order  that  the  various 
interests  involved  may  bargain  themselves  into  sub- 
stantial harmony.  Freedom  to  bargain,  here  as  else- 
where, is  essential. 

In  approaching  these  adjustments,  we  shall  en- 
counter, and  perhaps  lose  our  way  in,  a  maze  of 
legalism.  Forty-eight  sovereign  states,  with  as  many 
corporation  codes  and  innumerable  court  decisions 
pendent  therefrom,  furnish  a  tangle  from  which  all 
save  lawyers  shrink  in  dismay.  Some  day  we  shall 
need  —  perhaps  bitterly  enough  —  uniform  practice 
over  the  whole  country  for  corporations  engaging  in 
interstate  commerce ;  but  when  or  where  or  how  that 
can  be  brought  nearer,  I  do  not  prophesy.  Still  we 
shall  find  a  way;  "needs  must  when  the  Devil  drives." 

The  corporation  was  attended  at  birth  by  a  mid- 
wife, —  the  Law,  —  a  fussy  creature,  but  necessary 
withal.  We  shall  never  get  these  or  any  changes  in 
corporate  practice  wrought  without  her  aid ;  but  even 
so,  there  is  still  room  for  the  Greathearts  of  Industry 
to  go  a  long  way  toward  giving  their  corporations  a 
grip  upon  the  affections  of  the  people,  as  now  they 


i4o  THE     IRON     MAN 

grip  their  needs.  Some  already  have  gone  far  in  that 
direction,  against  the  advices  of  the  elders  and  sus- 
picions of  inferiors.  Offering  advice  to  such  pioneers 
is  insult;  to  them  these  words  are  but  recommenda- 
tions which,  along  with  news  of  their  own  accomplish- 
ments, they  may  pass  on  to  backward  brothers.  For, 
until  the  backward  brother  comes  to  realize  his  social 
significance  and  the  tremendous  power  for  good  or 
evil  of  this  man-made  creature  he  captains,  the  cor- 
poration will  remain  under  the  suspicion  of  the  state 
and  the  curse  of  the  mob.  Especially  may  we  hope 
that  the  evolution  of  the  corporation  toward  greater 
cooperation  and  security  for  the  workers  will  not  be  a 
blind  process,  but  one  steadied  and  hastened  by  the 
leaders  of  industry,  each  applying  courageously  in  his 
own  way,  to  his  particular  problem,  the  utmost  al- 
truism that  may  be  used  within  the  limits  of  sound 
economy  and  valid  social  concepts. 


VII 
THE    JOB      AND     SOCIETY 

IN  "The  Bronze  Woman"  the  plutocrat's  wife  says: 
"Social  unrest!  Indeed,  if  the  laboring  classes 
want  more  rest,  why  don't  they  take  it?  "  Escorting 
a  more  charming,  but  equally  sheltered,  representative 
of  the  fortunate  class  to  luncheon,  I  once  met  a  picket- 
line  of  cooks  and  waiters  at  their  moment  of  impact 
with  the  police. 

"What  are  they  fighting  for?  "  asked  my  companion. 

"Their  jobs,"  I  replied.  "Cooks'  and  waiters' 
strike." 

"Strange,"  she  observed,  "that  anyone  would  fight 
for  the  chance  to  stand  over  a  cookstove." 

Later,  in  a  serve-self,  I  tried  to  enlighten  her ;  but  it 
was  love's  labor  lost.  Indeed,  I  am  sure  the  job  is 
something  of  a  mystery  to  most  of  us  —  an  impene- 
trable mystery  to  those  who  never  have  known  in- 
security, and  hardly  better  understood  by  those  who 
live  by  and  for  their  jobs  every  day  of  their  lives. 

In  a  list  of  the  things  men  fight  for,  the  job  ranks 
well  toward  the  top.  Many  a  man,  who  must  be 
drafted  to  fight  for  his  country,  rushes  to  the  defense 
of  his  job  with  clenched  fists.  Tame  men,  who  have 
to  be  spurred  by  oratory  and  propaganda  to  throw 
themselves  into  great  causes,  come  up  bristling  like 
terriers  for  the  job's  sake.  Men  who  actually  hate 
their  jobs  nevertheless  fight  for  those  jobs,  risking 
broken  heads  and  jail  sentences.  No  fiercer  hatred 
can  be  roused  in  human  breast  than  that  which  flares 


i42  THE     IRON     MAN 

in  the  heart  of  the  common  man  against  his  enemy  on 
the  job  —  the  "scab."  I  once  heard  a  union  leader 
give  his  complete  opinion  of  the  scab,  and,  for  searing 
hate,  it  outdid  war  profanity. 

A  man  will  leave  his  job  on  strike,  for  reasons  which 
appear  absurd  to  the  calm  observer,  and  yet  rage  like 
mad  at  whoever  steps  into  his  shoes.  In  his  calm 
moments  he  may  subscribe  to  the  theory  that  every 
man  has  a  right  to  work ;  but  he  never  concedes  to  any- 
one else  the  right  to  work  at  a  job  that  he  considers 
his,  by  reason  of  recent  occupancy  and  willingness  to 
return  under  certain  conditions. 

He  who  depends  upon  a  job  vests  himself  with  a 
proprietary  interest  therein.    Instincts  remaining  im- 
mune to  legal  distinctions,  he  speaks  of  "my  job," 
when  he  may  be  tossed  out  of  it  within  the  hour.   No 
ordinary  human  ever  doubts  that  he  is  entitled  to  the 
means  of  life;  therefore,  the  wage-employee  instinc- 
tively assumes  proprietorship  over  that  which  is  es- 
sential to  his  life.    In  industrial  civilization  the  job  is 
essential  to  the  common  man.   His  defense  of  his  job, 
his  reaction  against  the  invader  who  comes  between 
him  and  his  job,  is  as  instant  as  his  defense  of  his  life, 
his  home,  or  his  woman.    His  job,  indeed,  is  the  first 
line  of  home-defense.    Job  gone,  the  home  is  in  sore 
danger;  unless  another  job  can  be  found  before  the 
savings  go,  the  home  is  ruined.    Moreover,  unless  he 
can  keep  the  job  up  to  standard,  he  cannot  keep  his 
home  or  himself  up  to  standard.  The  job  is  the  meas- 
ure of  social  fitness,  of  his  standing  in  the  community; 
by  it  the  common  man  rises  and  by  it  he  falls.  Hence 


THE     IRON     MAN  143 

the  apparent  anomaly,  of  a  man  fighting  for  that  niche 
in  the  workaday  world  which  he  walked  out  of,  is  no 
anomaly  at  all.  The  striker  leaves  the  job,  not  of  his 
own  free  will,  but  impelled  by  a  conviction  that  the 
job  needs  improving.  It  is  still,  in  his  view,  his  job ;  but 
not  worth  keeping  on  existing  terms  except  as  a  last 
resort,  under  pressure  of  necessity.  When  he  strikes, 
he  expects  to  return. 

Carleton  Parker  goes  the  whole  way  to  accepting 
the job-man'spointof view.  "The job, "he says, "is the 
worker's  property ,  because  the  latter  has  nothingelse." 
That  is  sophistry:  property  is  based  on  possession, 
not  lack.  And  the  jobless  worker  has  something  else: 
his  time,  his  arms  and  legs,  muscles,  nerves,  powers  of 
will  and  mind,  all  of  which  may  be  taken  into  the  mar- 
ket and  sold,  as  preliminary  to  the  setting  up  of 
another  job  on  such  terms  as  the  market  offers. 
Property,  on  the  contrary,  is  tangible,  transferable. 
Two  men  can  trade  properties  without  the  consent 
of  a  third ;  they  cannot  so  trade  their  jobs.  The  job, 
in  short,  is  not  property,  but  is,  instead,  a  personal 
relationship,  which,  like  so  many  others,  is  fast  be- 
coming a  social  relationship. 

In  a  time  of  depression,  large  numbers  of  jobs  vanish 
into  thin  air.  Within  a  week,  a  thousand  jobs  may  de- 
part from  a  community  because  of  the  market's  un- 
willingness to  take  the  produce  of  the  jobs  at  the  terms 
offered.  The  employer  must  retrench ;  to  delay  brings 
danger  of  bankruptcy.  The  men  so  laid  off  have  n't 
their  jobs,  and  the  employer  has  n't  them,  and  cannot 
hope  to  re-create  them  until  he  can  induce  the  market 


i44  THE     IRON     MAN 

to  take  his  accumulated  stocks.  He  would  much 
prefer  to  have  his  plant  working  full  time ;  each  slack 
day  costs  him,  or  his  corporation,  dearly  for  deprecia- 
tion, interest  charges,  and  overhead  expense.  But  for 
the  life  of  him  he  cannot  revive  those  jobs  until  the 
market,  properly  courted,  comes  to  his  rescue.  Until 
then,  all  he  possesses  is  the  mere  shell  of  the  vanished 
jobs  —  the  work- places,  standing-room,  and  the  tools 
of  production  upon  which  the  market  of  consumers 
enforces  temporary  idleness. 

So  the  job,  having  departed  from  both  employer 
and  employee,  awaits  the  commanding  touch  of  the 
market  before  it  can  live  again.  What,  pray,  is  the 
market?  None  other  than  society,  the  totality  of  per- 
sons and  institutions  in  the  trading  area.  The  job  de- 
pends, therefore,  upon  consumption;  if  jobs  belong  to 
anyone,  they  belong  to  society.  Which  is  equivalent 
to  repeating,  in  another  way,  that  jobs  are  not  prop- 
erty, because  society  owns  nothing.  Individuals  and 
their  various  associations  of  record  own  everything 
appropriable  thatis  worth  appropriating.  Thestate,  our 
most  inclusive  association  of  record,  is  held  loosely  ac- 
countable by  society  for  order  and  general  well-being; 
but  until  the  state  can  force  folk  to  live  according  to 
regimen,  consuming  thus  and  so  and  not  otherwise, 
the  job  remains  at  loose  ends,  in  the  air.  The  free  job 
—  free  in  the  sense  that  it  exists  as  a  result  of  bargain- 
ing among  free  men  under  the  law  —  is  a  result  of 
freedom  in  the  larger  sphere.  It  was  not  present  in 
serfdom,  but  came  into  being  with  freedom;  and  all 
efforts  to  harness  it  involve  a  diminution  of  freedom. 


THE     IRON     MAN  145 

The  unions,  when  they  try  that,  encroach  upon  the 
liberties  of  both  employers  and  union  members;  the 
employers,  when  they  try  it,  trespass  upon  the  lib- 
erties of  individuals;  and  the  state  that  tries  it  edges 
away  from  liberty.  To  stabilize  the  social  order,  prog- 
ress in  that  direction  may  be  necessary;  nevertheless, 
it  is  an  infringement  of  personal  liberty,  and  every 
prospective  advance  in  that  direction  ought  to  be 
judged  from  that  point  of  view  —  as  an  invasion  of 
freedom. 

The  right  to  work  means  one  thing  to  John  Doe, 
and  something  else  to  his  neighbor.  Capital  and  labor 
—  each  has  its  interpretation ;  the  spokesmen  of  both 
often  talk  nonsense ;  there  are  rogues  and  dullards  on 
both  sides  of  the  fence.  But  certain  aspects  of  the  case 
are  clear  as  day.  No  rights  can  long  remain  vested 
where  the  corresponding  duties  are  refused.  If  labor 
insists  on  the  right  to  quit,  it  cannot  logically  insist  on 
the  right  to  work.  Labor,  it  seems  to  me,  should  cleave 
to  the  right  to  strike,  because  the  exercise  of  that 
right  has  brought  the  masses  real  boons;  but,  if  so, 
it  must  cease  claiming  that  work  for  pay,  on  the 
materials  and  with  the  tools  of  others,  is  a  right. 
Work  on  such  terms  is  not  a  right,  but  a  social  priv- 
ilege. Some  day  it  may  become  a  right:  there  are 
tendencies  working  in  that  direction  now;  but  the 
process  can  be  completed  only  by  men  voiding  other 
rights  they  now  hold  dear,  and  assuming  as  duties  in- 
hibitions they  now  hold  to  be  intolerable. 

Both  strike  and  lockout  are  weapons  inevitably 
called  into  play  when  employer  and  employee  contest 


146  THE     IRON     MAN 

to  determine  the  conditions  of  jobs  after  bargaining 
fails.  Use  of  one  cannot  be  denied  fairly,  unless  the 
other  is  also  denied;  neither,  in  my  opinion,  can  be 
dispensed  with  while  men  remain  free  alike  to  work 
and  own.  However,  let  it  be  noted  that  neither  strike 
nor  lockout  is  used  until  bargaining  has  been  invoked, 
and  has  failed,  either  because  one  side  would  not  bar- 
gain, or  because  the  bargain,  once  begun,  was  not 
completed. 

Moreover,  neither  strike  nor  lockout  is  applied  un- 
less the  applier  is  convinced  that  he  can  win  by  so 
doing.  No  body  of  men  ever  yet  went  on  strike  for 
pure  principle,  in  a  cause  they  knew  to  be  hopeless; 
and  no  employer  ever  locked  out  men  simply  to  make 
good  a  point  in  policy.  This  is  a  rough  world,  but  as 
yet  its  inhabitants  fight  for  objectives  instead  of  ex- 
citement. The  railway  unions  stayed  at  work  in 
November,  1921,  simply  because  a  majority  of  their 
leaders  became  convinced  that  a  strike  at  the  date 
advertised  would  be  lost.  Their  eleventh-hour  decision 
not  to  strike  was  merely  good  generalship,  with  noth- 
ing of  altruism  or  accommodation  to  public  needs  in 
it.  But  better  generalship  would  have  been  (i)  to  lie 
low,  like  Br'er  Rabbit,  for  a  better  opportunity;  or  (2) 
to  say,  "We  yield  to  save  the  public  inconvenience," 
which  would  have  been  as  untrue  as  most  propaganda, 
but  time-serving  and  face-saving  —  a  proclamation 
for  political  purposes  only. 

Evolution  toward  industrial  security  involves  in- 
evitably some  diminution  of  industrial  freedom  for 
individuals;  each  generation  must  choose  between 


THE     IRON     MAN  147 

having  more  of  the  one  and  less  of  the  other ;  both  can- 
not be  maintained  coincidently.  The  drift  now  is 
toward  security  and  away  from  freedom;  the  social 
order  gains  at  the  expense  of  individualism;  but  thus 
far  the  fringe  of  freedom  sheared  off  has  been  of  small 
value,  because  reality  departed  from  it  before  the 
knife  began  to  cut.  When  individuals  find  it  increas- 
ingly difficult  to  produce  independently  of  others; 
when  many  are  under  practical  necessity  to  toil  on 
materials  and  at  machines  owned  by  a  corporation 
which,  in  turn,  is  owned  by  numbers  of  scattered 
stockholders,  there  is  no  paramount  advantage  in 
retaining,  undisturbed,  arrangements  effective  when 
individualism  in  toil  was  real  and  personal  independ- 
ence easily  maintained. 

To  put  the  case  concretely,  the  laborer  who  could 
escape  from  the  pay-roll  to  free  land  was  in  a  far  dif- 
ferent situation  from  his  successor,  who  finds  the  na- 
tional domain  practically  appropriated  and  farm-lands 
selling  above  the  capitalized  value  of  their  earnings. 
The  freedom  of  the  first  producer  was  absolute:  he 
could  go  or  stay ;  the  other's  is  relative :  he  can  go  only 
under  favoring  circumstances  not  easy  to  control.  The 
first  might  resent  an  interference  which  the  other 
would  welcome,  providing  it  brings  compensation  in 
the  matter  of  security.  And,  likewise,  an  employerwho 
is  keen  to  defend  his  right  to  exploit  an  expanding 
market  as  he  sees  fit,  may  welcome  restraint  when  he 
sees  trade  slowing  down,  and  realizes  that  the  un- 
trammeled  instincts  of  enterprisers  inevitably  lead  to 
over-production,  which  threatens  his  own  security 


148  THE     IRON     MAN 

along  with  that  of  his  employees.  Federal  control 
of  credits,  which,  in  the  last  analysis,  means  control 
of  business  and  a  more  stabilized  production,  was  not 
badly  received  by  the  business  world. 

The  fringe  of  industrial  freedom  is  now  dead  tissue, 
though  once  tingling  with  life.  The  causes  of  decay 
in  that  tissue  are  many;  but  prominent  among  them 
must  be  listed  the  growing  influence  of  automatism, 
standardization,  and  interchangeability  in  fabricating 
goods.  Machinery  has  increased  the  insecurity  of  the 
common  man's  position  in  the  wage-system,  by  in- 
creasing the  number  of  potential  competitors  for  his 
job.  The  balance  between  security  and  individualism 
has  been  destroyed,  with  the  result  that  personal  free- 
dom in  work-relations  no  longer  seems  worth  fighting 
for,  and  a  new  balance  must  be  struck.  When  per- 
sonal skill  was  a  prime  factor  in  industry,  the  indi- 
vidual artisan  occupied  a  fairly  safe  position,  because 
substitutes  were  few  —  a  security  which  had  its  in- 
evitable offset  in  the  fact  that,  since  shop-practices 
were  not  standardized,  he  had  difficulty  fitting  in  else- 
where, and  so  was  more  or  less  tied  to  the  job.  The 
point  is  that,  if  he  was  tied  to  the  job,  so  likewise  was 
the  job  tied  to  him.  The  management  disliked  to  see 
him  get  out  of  town. 

Note  the  contrast  with  the  present.  To-day,  he 
who  does  ordinary  work  in  a  plant  highly  automatized 
is  in  potential  competition  with  every  idle  man  in  a 
far-spread  labor  market — and,  unless  the  task  is  ar- 
duous indeed,  with  many  women,  also.  The  skill- 
barrier  has  been  trampled  down  so  completely  by  the 


THE     IRON     MAN  149 

Iron  Man,  that  whoever  possesses  ordinary  intelli- 
gence and  strength  can  take  the  machine-tender's 
place  after  short  instruction.  The  common  man's  grip 
on  his  job  has  loosened.  If  he  does  n't  like  the  place, 
let  him  get  out ;  plenty  of  persons  can  fill  his  shoes  in 
short  order.  And  if  he  must  be  laid  off,  there  is  no 
need  to  worry  about  keeping  a  string  on  him  until 
happier  times.  Out  with  him;  and  never  mind  what 
becomes  of  him.  Let  the  man,  the  community,  and 
the  state  fret  over  that. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  all  employers,  or  any  con- 
siderable proportion  of  them,  are  so  ruthless ;  some  of 
them  have  gone  so  far  as  to  risk  insolvency  out  of 
human,  non-economic  consideration  for  their  help;  but 
that  is  the  power  which  automatic  machinery  puts 
into  employers'  hands  —  power  which  the  least  ethical 
will  be  prompt  to  use ;  power  which  competition  may 
force  even  the  most  ethical  to  use,  in  order  to  keep  his 
corporation  solvent. 

The  increasing  influence  of  automatic  machinery 
promotes  industrial  insecurity  in  another  way,  —  by 
speeding  up  market  gluts,  —  as  a  result  of  which  jobs 
vanish  as  if  by  magic  and  are  only  gradually  reestab- 
lished. The  first  English  factory  equipped  for  inter- 
changeable manufacture  —  that  at  Portsmouth,  in 
1808  —  at  once  multiplied  the  productivity  of  the  in- 
dividual producer  of  ships'  blocks  by  ten.  From  that 
time  on,  we  have  gone  along  multiplying  man-power 
as  measured  in  goods,  and  there  is  apparently  no  limit 
at  which  the  process,  economically,  can  be  stayed.  In 
spite  of  tremendous  efforts  to  educate  backward 


150  THE     IRON     MAN 

peoples  in  wants,  and  force  goods  into  use  in  trading 
areas  not  accustomed  to  them, — efforts  which  created 
part  of  the  background  of  the  World  War,  —  market 
gluts  and  their  resultant  depressions  are  recurrent 
phenomena. 

I  know  that  plenty  means  cheapness  and  extended 
use;  nevertheless,  it  is  apparent  that  the  social,  po- 
litical, and  financial  fabric  of  civilization  is  not  suffi- 
ciently sensitive  to  accommodate  itself  to  these  in- 
creases in  production  rapidly  enough  to  avoid  vast  and 
poignant  distress.  Recurrently,  production  runs  ahead 
of  consumption ;  population  increases,  but  not  swiftly 
enough;  wants  increase,  but  not  fast  enough;  the 
standard  of  living  rises,  but  not  far  enough.  The  pa- 
tient, society,  unable  to  digest  such  enormous  masses 
of  goods,  becomes  nauseated  and  needs  purging.  Doc- 
tors rally  to  the  bedside;  nevertheless,  recovery  is  slow. 
All  sorts  of  persons  suffer  in  these  fits  of  social  sickness, 
but  those  who  suffer  most  are  they  who  customarily 
labor  for  wages  with  the  tools  of  others.  Given  the 
ballot,  it  is  inevitable  that  they  should  use  it  to  com- 
bat such  difficulties. 

From  the  standpoint  of  national  economy,  a  capable 
and  willing  man  out  of  a  day's  work  is  a  calamity. 
Multiplied  by  millions,  the  situation  is  a  threat  against 
the  state.  There  was  a  time  when  England  said  to  her 
unemployed :  "  Emigrate" ;  then  she  kept  them  up  out 
of  the  rates;  now  she  combines  state  relief  and  doles. 
No  one  dares  to  hint  that  starvation  is  expected  of  the 
unemployed.  Some  reactionaries  may  think  it,  but 
they  dare  not  say  it.  In  such  a  pass  the  government, 


THE     IRON     MAN  151 

torn  between  threats  of  insolvency  and  revolution, 
must  find  jobs  —  a  task  for  which  the  state  is  by  its 
nature  unfitted,  and  which  America,  more  favorably 
situated,  may  avoid.  Not  that  we  would  behave  differ- 
ently under  like  extremity;  but,  by  taking  thought, 
we  may  escape  the  extremity,  at  least  until  our  popu- 
lation becomes  considerably  more  dense  than  it  is 
to-day. 

Fortunately,  the  automatic  machine  and  public  edu- 
cation provide  an  ameliorating  influence.  As  wages 
tend  toward  a  common  level,  and  capital  gradually 
loses  its  entrepreneur  function,  considerable  progress 
will  be  made  toward  a  relative  equalizing  of  incomes. 
There  would  remain,  of  course,  .incomes  derivable 
from  rent  and  interest;  but  for  all  that  we  can  see  to 
the  contrary,  super-taxes  will  discourage  such  accu- 
mulations and  gradually  shred  away  large  wealth- 
holdings.  As  wages  are  leveled,  not  absolutely  but 
relatively,  so  also  are  incomes  likely  to  be  leveled 
relatively.  This  involves,  of  course,  a  reduction  in 
society's  power  to  produce  capital  by  saving  —  a  seri- 
ous sacrifice,  no  doubt  (but  one  which  apparently  must 
be  made,  in  order  to  permit  the  producer  to  consume 
more  nearly  the  equivalent  of  his  product) .  If  produc- 
tion and  consumption  were  exactly  equal  there  could 
be  neither  glut  nor  dearth;  but,  even  in  a  static  world, 
capital  would  be  destroyed  in  use,  and  must  be  re- 
stored, in  order  to  keep  labor  effective. 

This  hazily  forecasted  change  involves  time,  per- 
haps more  than  the  passions  of  the  post-war  era  will 
permit.  Meanwhile  the  virtues  of  both  strike  and 


152  THE     IRON     MAN 

lockout  will  continue  to  be  abused,  and  government 
will  continue  to  burn  its  clumsy  fingers  in  the  fires  of 
class-discord.  I  detest  programmes,  and  would  avoid 
even  the  appearance  of  prescribing  definite  remedies. 
But  if  you  insist  on  a  programme,  —  and  the  ordinary 
person  will  not  be  content  without  some  positive  di- 
rection, —  then,  without  any  fear  of  the  consequences, 
I  recommend  the  cooperation  of  working  shareholders 
in  corporations  animated  by  zeal  for  the  group  good, 
but  adhering  to  the  sound  practice  of  rewarding 
workers  according  to  their  economic  significance  in 
production  and  their  thrift  in  contributing  capital  to 
the  enterprise.  Where  feasible  and  advantageous, 
such  groups  should  ensure  their  continuity  by  possess- 
ing a  grip  on  the  land  —  now,  as  ever,  the  source  of 
man's  subsistence  and  his  haven  of  refuge  in  all  ages. 
Some,  at  least,  of  the  millions  who  now  live  in  fear  for 
their  jobs  from  one  day  to  another  could  thus  antici- 
pate the  day  when  the  further  organization  of  life  and 
industry,  by  methods  impossible  to  foresee,  will  com- 
bine reasonable  security  for  rank-and-file  producers 
with  all  the  freedom  compatible  with  such  tenure. 

The  job  is  a  social  grant,  as  well  as  a  lease  on  life ; 
and,  unless  all  signs  fail,  it  must  eventually  gain  social 
guaranties.  But  whatsoever  those  guaranties  are,  they 
must  be  bought  and  paid  for  at  a  price.  Our  bitter 
quarrel  over  the  job  is  founded  on  a  false  assumption 
of  proprietorship  over  a  relationship  which  eludes  ap- 
propriation. Soon  or  late  those  vitally  concerned  are 
going  to  realize  that  truth,  cease  fighting,  and  begin  to 
negotiate  more  constructively. 


VIII 
WAR    AND    WORK 

IN  America  we  invent,  manufacture,  and  use  in  the 
production  of  goods,  an  infinite  number  of  ma- 
chines; but  we  pay  scant  heed  to  the  effect  of  these 
machines  upon  the  evolution  of  society.  Out  here,  in 
our  great  Middle  West  machine-shops,  where  the  auto- 
matic principle  of  machine  production  has  reached 
its  highest  development  and  broadest  application,  we 
possess  tools  superior  to  those  of  Paris.  Yet  it  would 
never  have  occurred  to  any  of  us  to  say  in  1914,  as  did 
Bergson  in  addressing  the  French  Academy :  — 

"Many  years  hence,  when  the  reaction  of  the  past 
shall  have  left  only  the  grand  outlines  in  view,  this 
perhaps  is  how  a  philosopher  will  speak  of  our  age.  He 
will  say  that  the  idea,  peculiar  to  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, of  employing  science  in  the  satisfaction  of  our 
material  wants  had  given  a  wholly  unforeseen  ex- 
tension to  the  mechanical  arts,  and  equipped  man, 
in  less  than  fifty  years,  with  more  tools  than  he  had 
made  during  the  thousands  of  years  he  had  lived  upon 
earth.  Each  new  machine  being  for  man  a  new  organ, 
—  an  artificial  organ,  —  his  body  became  suddenly 
and  prodigiously  increased  in  size,  without  his  soul 
being,  at  the  same  time,  able  to  dilate  to  the  dimen- 
sions of  his  new  body." 

Bergson  pictures  the  " machinate  mammal"  of  But- 
ler's striking  phrase  as  a  dread,  autogenetic  being, 
adding  limbs  and  organs  ad  infinitum,  without  corre- 
sponding growth  of  soul  — a  modern  monster  set  going 


154  THE     IRON     MAN 

by  our  busy  Frankensteins,  the  inventors.  Let  us 
consider,  rather,  man  in  society,  organized  into  states, 
and  observe  some  of  the  political  and  social  results 
which  have  followed,  and  are  likely  to  follow,  multi- 
plication of  man-power  by  machinery. 

Multiplying  man-power  by  machinery  sets  in  mo- 
tion certain  forces  and  tendencies  in  key  with  —  but 
not  at  all  points  parallel  to  —  those  set  in  motion  in 
other  times  by  brisk  breeding.  However  generated, 
new  peaks  of  human  energy  strain  social  and  political 
systems  evolved  to  carry  currents  less  high.  Unless 
the  current  is  cut  down,  or  the  system  of  distribution 
readjusted  to  carry  the  new  peak-load,  something 
breaks.  War  is  simply  one  method  of  restoring  equi- 
librium between  the  kinetics  of  human  energy  and  the 
statics  of  social  order. 

Machine  use,  on  the  expanding  scale  of  recent  years, 
multiplies  goods  production  over  and  above  any  point 
attainable  by  natural  increase  without  machine  as- 
sistance. Power  over  machines  enabled  the  coal-and- 
iron members  of  the  great-nations  group  to  establish 
world-leadership  in  the  years  between  the  industrial 
revolution  and  the  World  War.  Not  only  did  popula- 
tion in  the  industrial  states  increase  absolutely,  but  the 
effectiveness  of  those  increased  populations  in  wealth 
production  multiplied  over  and  over.  States  with 
more  machines  assumed  preponderant  political  influ- 
ence over  those  with  less. 

Because  the  nations  of  leading  power  at  the  opening 
of  the  twentieth  century  were  all  white  and  all  Chris- 
tian, a  false  idea  arose  that  this  overlordship  rested 


THE     IRON     MAN  155 

upon  race  or  religion;  but  Japan's  entrance,  following 
victory  over  Russia,  proved  the  acid  test  of  world- 
power  to  be  industrial  prowess.  Enough  productivity 
to  furnish,  year  after  year,  a  considerable  excess  of 
goods  for  export,  and  to  support  naval  and  military 
forces  proportionate  to  the  resulting  extensive  overseas 
interests  —  these  were  the  prime  desiderata  of  power ; 
and  the  nation  possessing  them  could  be  sure  of  its 
place  in  the  sun,  regardless  of  color  or  the  constitution 
of  its  godhead. 

Machine-power  not  only  strengthened  nationalism 
by  slowing  down  dispersion  through  emigration,  but 
also  intensified  it,  by  generating  real  need  for  group 
action  to  ensure  subsistence  from  foreign  sources.  To 
make  the  industrial  centre  secure,  its  economic  hinter- 
land must  be  likewise  secure;  states  were  constantly 
urged  by  groups  oppressed  by  the  conviction  of  inse- 
curity to  move  outward  toward  the  control  of  that 
ever- widening  hinterland,  without  whose  produce  and 
consumption  the  industrial  complex  at  home  must 
languish  in  unprofitable  depression. 

In  earlier  times  natural  increase  set  in  motion  cen- 
trifugal forces,  which  machine  increase  shifted  into 
centripetal  forces.  Nations  in  effective  possession  of 
coal  and  iron  held  their  nationals,  because  machines 
permitted  the  use  at  home  of  more  labor  and  more 
capital  per  acre.  Instead  of  sending  forth  surplus  pop- 
ulation at  the  former  rate,  the  industrial  states  sent 
forth,  in  ever-increasing  volume,  surplus  goods  to 
compete  with  those  of  their  rival  nationals  in  world- 
markets.  The  descendants  of  men  who  had  won  sus- 


156  THE     IRON     MAN 

tenance  at  the  spear-point  in  forced  migrations  now 
fought  one  another  with  goods,  and  recorded  their 
victories  in  ledgers  instead  of  sagas.   Upon  the  profit- 
able and  certain  sale  of  these  goods  depended  national 
solvency  and  domestic  content,  the  hunger  or  plenty 
of  millions  of  wage-earners,  the  revenues  which  sup- 
ported governments,  military  establishments,  educa- 
tional institutions  —  in  short,  modern  Western  civil- 
ization.   Realizing  the  vulnerability  of  their  economic 
supports,  the  industrial  societies  of  the  Old  World 
grew  more  and  more  state-conscious,  and  drifted  into 
more  and  more  echinate  relations  one  with  another. 
Thus  modern  nationalism  developed  a  sinister  accent. 
Given  the  determining  mechanisms,  this  develop- 
ment was  sure  as  fate.   Arteries  of  national  existence, 
inextricably  interwoven,  came  to  thread  the  Seven 
Seas.  Though  the  bulk  of  imported  nourishment  grew 
in  stabilized  quarters,  certain  essentials  of  industrial 
life  were  gathered  from  lightly  settled  districts  of  un- 
certain political  complexion,  where  the  white  man's 
code  did  not  run.    Concessions  and  capitulations,  ex- 
tra-territoriality   and  economic  penetration  —  these 
satisfied  neither  natives  nor  invaders.   Willy-nilly,  the 
situation  made  for  imperialism.    Wherever  moneys 
were  owing  and  courts  were  not;  wherever  raw  ma- 
terials needed  in  the  mills  back  home  could  be  pro- 
duced ;  wherever  goods  could  be  sold  to  the  heathen  if 
the  latter  could  be  educated  sufficiently  in  wants; 
wherever  capital  could  be  multiplied  by  exploiting 
cheap  labor  —  there  industrial  societies,  though  lo- 
cated on  the  other  side  of  the  earth,  had  stakes,  vital 


THE     IRON     MAN  157 

stakes  of  existence.  The  temptation  was  powerful, 
indeed,  to  change  these  stakes  of  existence  into  stakes 
of  empire.  Africa  was  partitioned;  western  Asia  be- 
came a  bickering  ground;  China  was  divided  into 
spheres  of  influence,  and  must  soon  have  been  parceled 
out  if  the  United  States,  not  yet  hard  pressed  econom- 
ically, had  not  initiated  the  saving  reprieve  of  the 
"Open  Door." 

So  far  toward  the  war  had  the  nations  traveled  by 
the  beginning  of  the  century.  Thereafter  came  in- 
trigue after  intrigue  for  adjustment  and  review.  Only 
by  stating  and  restating  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  in 
terms  which  would  have  amazed  Monroe,  were  we  able 
to  fend  off  itching  hands  from  South  America,  per- 
chance to  keep  for  ourselves  freedom  of  action  in  that 
quarter  at  some  later  date.  Elsewhere  the  game  went 
on  with  ever-increasing  openness  as  the  economic  needs 
of  Europe  became  more  acute.  The  nations  looked 
sharply  to  navies,  coaling-stations,  merchant  marines, 
as  so  much  national  insurance  under  the  conditions 
imposed  by  the  Iron  Man.  Popular  hate  must  be 
roused,  to  wring  funds  for  naval  expansion  from  par- 
liaments and  taxpayers.  Enter  propaganda,  the  press 
doing  its  share,  and  navy  leagues  the  rest.  Diplomatic 
incident  followed  incident,  well  named  because  so  ob- 
viously incidental  eruptions  of  the  primary  force  that 
made  peace  ever  more  difficult  to  keep.  Algeciras, 
London,  The  Hague  —  all  vain  while  factory- wheels 
continued  to  move  at  an  ever-accelerated  pace,  and 
statesmen  continued  thinking  in  terms  of  politics  in- 
stead of  economics.  Back  of  all  this  diplomatic  jock- 


158  THE     IRON     MAN 

eying  and  military  picketing,  commercial  zeal  and 
naval  expansion,  —  the  mo  tor- force  behind  all  these 
expressions  of  national  will,  —  operated  unceasingly 
the  overload  of  human  energy  released  by  machine 
multiplication  of  man-power. 

Responsibility  for  this  dangerous  evolution  rests 
upon  political  rigidity  rather  than  upon  industrial 
progress.  Internally  each  of  the  industrial  states 
maintained  such  a  division  of  the  returns  of  industry 
that  its  full  production  could  not  be  consumed  at 
home ;  internationally  trade  and  finance  reached  plan- 
etary proportions  without  correspondingly  broad  po- 
litical and  legal  controls.  Failing  such  controls,  the 
situation  marched  swiftly  to  its  conclusion.  Almost 
to  the  last,  either  of  two  denouements  was  possible  — 
either  the  boundaries  of  industrial  states  must  burst 
under  inequalities  of  pressure  generated  by  increased 
populations  and  increased  machines,  or  the  machines 
themselves  must  be  slowed  down  by  eliminating  prof- 
its from  their  operation.  The  first  meant  war  —  the 
World  War;  the  second  meant  war  also,  but  of  a 
different  sort  —  the  war  between  classes,  the  social 
revolution. 

In  midsummer  of  1914,  it  was  nip  and  tuck  which 
method  of  bleeding  the  too-vital  patient  would  be 
adopted.  Had  Juares  lived,  who  knows  how  changed 
the  face  of  history  might  be?  The  state- war  method 
won  the  desperate  race  against  time.  At  the  moment, 
decision  rested  with  certain  Germans,  who  may  have 
been  influenced,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  by 
the  hovering  spectre  of  social  and  political  revolution. 


THE     IRON     MAN  159 

If  deferred  then,  the  decision  a  little  later  might  have 
rested  upon  other  persons  elsewhere;  and  if  so,  the 
answer  must  have  been  the  same  —  war.  Useless  to 
apply  ethical  rules  at  such  a  pass;  indicting  forces  is 
even  more  absurd  than  indicting  nations.  The  im- 
portant thing  to  understand,  here  and  now,  is  that, 
given  nationalism  as  the  dominant  social  fact  of  the 
planet,  sea-striding  industrialism  as  its  dominant  eco- 
nomic fact,  and  the  control  of  weak  peoples  by  strong 
as  its  dominant  political  fact,  peace  in  or  near  the  year 
1914  could  not  be  maintained  without  qualifying  one 
or  all  of  the  three.  It  was  not  done.  There  was  none 
big  enough  to  do  it.  To  that  extent,  the  war  may  be 
considered  inevitable. 

Has  Europe's  blood-letting,  plus  its  post-war  So- 
cialism and  Communism,  rid  the  world  of  wars  bred 
in  the  market-place?  The  situation  does  not  make  for 
confidence.  State  competition,  intensified  by  hunger, 
hate,  and  debt,  is  not  yet  restrainable  by  international 
bonds.  Russia's  experiment  does  not  recommend  the 
class-war  as  a  means  to  peace.  Just  as  industry  and 
nationalism  conceived  and  brought  forth  the  World 
War,  without  knowing  quite  either  when  or  how  con- 
ception occurred,  so  they  may  add  to  the  Martian 
family  in  the  future.  Indeed,  certain  tendencies  of 
modern  industrialism,  in  its  new  automatic  phase,  as 
yet  but  dimly  understood,  seem  destined  to  put  even 
more  strain  upon  the  political  framework  of  the  planet 
than  that  under  which  the  same  framework  cracked  in 
1914. 

One  such  aspect  of  industrialism  is  its  tendency  to 


160  THE     IRON     MAN 

spread.  Born  in  England,  the  factory  system  has  mi- 
grated to  northwestern  Europe,  northern  Italy,  the 
United  States,  and  Japan.  It  has  healthy  roots  in 
Canada,  less  healthy  ones  in  Mexico.  It  appeared  in 
Russia,  and  contributed  to  that  debacle.  China  is 
getting  under  industrial  way,  slowly,  but  with  a 
steady  ponderosity  which  Ross,  Stoddard,  and  Weale 
agree  means  nothing  less  than  an  economic  upheaval 
certain  to  affect  every  nation  and  individual  on  earth 
as  time  runs  on.  India,  too,  is  on  the  way,  quickening 
step  during  the  war.  Australia,  by  erecting  a  tariff 
wall,  encourages  domestic  industries.  Thus  industry 
travels;  how  far  can  it  go? 

The  spread  of  industry  among  colored  and  Slavic 
populations  has  been  retarded  appreciably  by  the  fact 
that,  in  the  past,  industrial  production  required  the 
application  of  certain  traits,  natural  or  acquired, 
which,  for  historic  reasons  beyond  the  scope  of  this 
paper,  are  more  apparent  in  the  white  peoples  than 
in  others.  The  skill  element  was  paramount.  Now, 
industry  has  machines  so  highly  perfected  that  highly 
specialized  skill  is  not  required.  Ordinary  intelligence 
and  average  manual  dexterity  are  the  top  require- 
ments, from  the  standpoint  of  production  only,  for  the 
operative  or  attendant  of  automatic  machines.  He 
who  brings  maximum  endurance  to  the  shop  at  mini- 
mum cost  will  profit  his  employer  most.  On  this  basis 
the  Chinese  coolie,  at  first  glance,  appears  unbeatable. 
If  not  the  best  individual,  his  cheapness  still  may  give 
his  produce  an  advantage  in  the  market.  The  Jap- 
anese have  demonstrated  a  considerable  degree  of 


THE     IRON     MAN  161 

Oriental  adaptability  to  modern  machines.  The 
Hindu,  on  test,  may  not  be  far  behind.  And  since  the 
tendency  in  machine-development  is  always  toward 
less  and  less  mental  demand  upon  the  operative,  there 
is  the  possibility  that  even  more  backward  peoples 
than  these  may  some  day  find  machines  attuned  to 
their  mental  and  manual  capacities.  The  huge  profits 
likely  to  follow  promptly  upon  the  putting  of  cheap, 
low-standard  labor  at  work  upon  automatic  and  semi- 
automatic machines  should  be  enough  to  ensure  that, 
soon  or  late,  all  peoples  will  be  brought  to  the  ordeal 
by  the  Iron  Man. 

But  whether  browns,  blacks,  and  yellows  can  with- 
stand this  ordeal  is  another  matter.  Theoretically, 
expansion  of  industry  should  proceed  until  export 
trade  in  manufactured  goods  is  much  curtailed.  But 
there  are  offsets  to  consider  —  capital,  coal,  iron,  oil, 
water-power.  Dearth  of  these  bars  industry  from 
many  quarters.  Far  more  important,  however,  are 
the  varying  abilities  of  races  and  peoples  to  meet  the 
social  and  political  problems  presented  by  machine 
industry.  The  white  race  is  progressive;  the  historic 
concept  which  has  motivated  Western  history  gives 
it  a  superior  elasticity  of  adaptation  to  changing  con- 
ditions. Yet  the  war  proves  that  even  we  favored 
whites  could  not  escape  at  least  one  terrific  setback 
resulting  from  industrial  impact.  The  depth  and 
breadth  of  present  social  unrest  further  emphasizes 
the  difficulties  of  adjustment  on  that  side  of  the  equa- 
tion. Since  the  colored  races  have  not  yet  been  tried 
in  the  fiery  crucible  of  industry,  no  one  can  prophesy 


162  THE     IRON     MAN 

their  reaction  to  the  impact  of  modern  industry. 
Consider  from  this  angle  some  of  the  vital  demands 
that  industry  makes  upon  government  and  upon  so- 
ciety. Industry  requires  a  government  at  once  strong 
and  flexible.  Government  must  preserve  domestic 
order  against  class  jealousies  that  fatten  upon  the  dis- 
parity of  wealth  inevitably  arising  from  industrialism 
under  private  ownership  —  as  King  demonstrates  in 
his  comparison  of  incomes  in  Prussia  and  Wisconsin. 
It  must  uphold  contracts  under  conditions  in  which 
contractual  relations  become  increasingly  complex.  It 
must  protect  the  people  from  their  employers  and  from 
themselves ;  it  must  maintain  such  hours  of  labor  and 
working  conditions  as  will  save  the  workers  from  being 
ground  down  in  ruthless  competition,  or  enfeebled  by 
their  own  weaknesses.  It  must  encourage  the  public, 
and  find  ways  and  means  to  compensate  it  for  the  so- 
cial sacrifices  involved  in  industrial  production,  which 
compensations  must  be  provided  outside  of  factory 
walls  and  enjoyed  at  leisure.  To  provide  these  seda- 
tives requires  the  presence  of  an  imaginative,  strongly 
functioning  public  spirit  outside  of  the  industrial 
group,  and  the  finding  of  funds  to  make  expensive 
dreams  of  social  progress  come  true,  at  least  suffi- 
ciently to  allay  discontent. 

The  dilemma  presented  by  heavy  social  needs,  and 
the  very  real  danger  of  overtaxing  industry,  is  not  an 
easy  one  to  solve,  even  for  states  highly  organized ;  it 
may  well  prove  insoluble  for  states  which,  like  China 
and  Turkey,  reveal  chronic  inability  to  establish 
sound  public  finance.  Finally,  history  gives  no  ground 


THE     IRON     MAN  163 

for  believing  that  industry  and  autocracy  are  com- 
patible; in  the  long  run,  so  strong  are  the  social  pres- 
sures involved,  a  successful  government  of  an  industrial 
state  must  grow  out  of  the  conscious  will  of  its  people, 
represent  their  ideals,  and  be  amenable  to  those  ideals 
as  they  change  from  generation  to  generation.  Even 
in  Japan  the  advent  of  industry  brought  constitutional 
forms,  not  yet  nationally  digested.  Those  states  in 
which  representative  democracy  had  reached  its  high- 
est expression  emerged  from  the  desperate  test  of  war, 
and  the  grind  of  war-production,  with  the  least  po- 
litical and  social  damage. 

Industry  prospers  best  under  capitalism  and  under 
representative  democracy ;  I  cannot  conceive  industry 
functioning  well  under  other  dispensations.  German 
autocrats  might  introduce  state  socialism  as  they 
pleased:  the  fact  of  autocracy  remained  a  threat  to 
German  industry.  And  because  no  colored  race  equals 
the  white  in  its  power  to  create  the  social  and  political 
setting  in  which  machine  industry  thrives,  I  am  unable 
to  follow  Lothrop  Stoddard  to  the  lengths  he  goes  in 
forecasting  the  shrinking  of  the  white  man's  markets 
in  his  book,  "The  Rising  Tide  of  Color." 

Indeed,  the  impact  of  industry  upon  colored  races 
seems  as  likely  to  weaken  them  as  the  reverse.  Modern 
industrialism  places  both  the  individual  and  society 
under  severe  and  continued  strains,  physical,  mental, 
moral.  The  more  static  the  society,  the  more  custom- 
tied  the  individual,  the  more  severe  the  strain.  The 
English  people  have  been  evolving  with  and  in  indus- 
try, under  representative  government,  for  six  cen- 


164  THE     IRON     MAN 

turies;  for  two  centuries  they  have  been  applying 
power  to  machines  and  building  up  a  factory  system. 
All  this  time  they  have  been  building  up  definite  im- 
munities against  industrial  ills,  and  definite  predispo- 
sitions to  bargain  themselves  out  of  industrial  ills. 
Yet  they  are  never  out  of  hot  water,  politically  and 
industrially.  I  do  not  see  how  peoples  without  that 
background,  or  something  like  it,  lacking  alike  polit- 
ical flexibility  and  industrial  experience,  can  stand  the 
attrition  of  industrial  life.  Industrialism  in  its 
functioning  and  growth  —  and  it  is  still  growing  — 
requires  never-ending  readjustments,  compromises, 
and  concessions  which  are  born  of  freedom  and  re- 
sponsibility —  the  right  of  individuals  and  groups  to 
bargain  freely,  and  the  duty,  freely  accepted,  of  living 
up  to  the  bargain  after  it  is  made.  Where  these  con- 
cepts have  no  place  in  the  popular  mind,  there  in- 
dustry will  have  rough  sledding,  and  can  become 
efficient  only  through  a  system  of  force  and  repression 
which  eventually  defeats  itself. 

It  is  easy,  under  the  automatic  regime,  for  a  man 
to  stand  beside  a  machine  and  produce  goods,  and 
difficult  for  him  to  stay  there  and  remain  a  reasonably 
satisfied,  contributing  member  of  a  political  and  social 
group,  strong  enough  to  maintain  itself,  yet  flexible 
enough  to  give  him  reason  to  believe  industrialism 
worth  while.  Mexico's  experience  is  a  case  in  point/ 
Diaz,  proceeding  toward  the  industrialization  of  his 
country  with  the  aid  of  foreign  capital,  enterprisers, 
and  engineers,  unmistakably  bettered  the  economic 
condition  of  Mexican  labor.  Nevertheless,  the  peons' 


THE     IRON     MAN  165 

ideal  of  life  remained  agricultural ;  Madero  won  their 
backing  with  his  promise  of  forty  acres  and  a  mule. 
Carranza,  inheriting  from  Madero,  frankly  declared 
his  country's  antipathy  to  industrialism.  Whatever 
his  faults,  Carranza  sized  his  Indian  up  correctly. 
Though  the  Mexican  peon  has  certain  innate  capac- 
ities for  factory  work,  notably  high  manual  dexterity 
and  stolid  patience,  he  prefers  to  half-starve  on  the 
land  rather  than  work  upon  modern  machines  indoors, 
at  wages  that  would  enable  him  to  maintain  a  higher 
standard  of  living.  Necessity  may  bring  him  to  the 
factory,  if  we  whites  insist;  but  he  will  remain  a  rebel, 
active  or  potential,  against  industrial  organization  so 
imposed. 

The  Mexican's  instinctive  reaction  against  indus- 
trial organization  differs  in  degree,  but  not  in  kind, 
from  that  of  many  of  our  own  shop-workers.  There 
develops  among  the  workers  in  highly  automatized 
plants  a  chronic  dissatisfaction,  which  cannot  be  ex- 
plained away  without  reference  to  nerves.  It  seems  to 
be  proof  against  high  wages  and  good  conditions.  Wel- 
fare-work, bonuses,  shop-councils,  even  profit-sharing 
do  not  drive  it  out.  So  pervasive  is  this  malady  that 
it  might  be  described  as  a  work-neurosis.  Clatter  and 
haste  are  contributing  factors ;  so  also  are  indoor  con- 
finement, monotony  of  task,  distance  from  the  real 
boss,  repression  of  personality,  strict  regimentation 
of  effort,  and  the  scant  opportunity  afforded  for  the 
play  of  the  craftsman  instinct,  the  joy  in  production. 

But  the  basic  cause  lies  deeper.  All  of  us  are  de- 
scended from  ancestors  who,  a  comparatively  short 


i66  THE     IRON     MAN 

time  ago,  were  farmers,  hunters,  and  fishermen  with 
occasional  experience  as  fighting  men.  Their  work 
held  considerable  variety,  called  for  great  outbursts 
of  physical  energy  interspersed  with  frequent  let- 
downs. They  had  their  labor-thrills  along  with  their 
labor-pains.  Even  the  simple  annals  of  the  mediaeval 
poor  must  have  been  crowded  with  adventure,  as 
compared  with  the  systematic,  colorless,  bare-of- 
drama  tasks  of  the  modern  factory.  Your  worker  is 
there  in  the  factory,  not  because  he  wants  to  be,  but 
because  he  needs  the  money,  and  can  discover  no  other 
means  of  getting  it.  Yet  there  is  that  stirring  within 
him  which  informs  him,  even  before  the  voice  of  the 
agitator  reinforces  the  conviction,  that  this  is  no  life 
for  a  real  man.  He  gets,  literally,  no  fun  out  of  his 
labors.  His  environment  irks  him,  and  out  of  that  at- 
trition is  born  an  Arbeitschmerz  as  real  as  the  Welt- 
schmerz  that  Goethe  discovered.  Our  tenders  of  ma- 
chines are  being  starved  in  their  souls ;  and  while  there 
may  be  sedatives  for  that  malady,  there  is  no  specific. 

That  seems  to  me  the  root  of  social  unrest  in  Amer- 
ica ;  and  it  is  probably  equally  true  in  Europe.  Under 
our  political  and  social  controls,  in  a  people  naturally 
robust  and  hopeful  in  spirit,  the  sickness  may  not  run 
its  course.  Though  half  our  mechanics  talk  radicalism 
they  vote  with  the  others  for  Harding,  play  baseball 
in  our  parks,  and  get  some  relief  and  encouragement 
out  of  being  literate  citizens  of  a  republic  whose  evo- 
lution tends,  however  slowly,  toward  the  interests  of 
the  masses. 

But  what  will  this  chronic  work-pain  drive  other 


THE     IRON     MAN  167 

breeds  to  do  —  breeds  that  get  no  relief  out  of  sport 
and  voting?    Well,  to  cite  the  shining  example,  it 
seems  to  have  poisoned  Russia's  industrial  workers 
against  the  only  system  of  industry  under  which  in- 
dustry functions  profitably  in  our  day ;  the  Commu- 
nists of  Russia  come  from  her  few  industrial  towns. 
Signs  of  similar  explosions  are  not  lacking  in  Japan. 
No  matter  how  shops  are  organized,  no  matter  how 
profits  are  divided,  this  fraying  of  nerves  in  industry 
continues.    Industry  may  stir  temporarily  the  simple 
folk  of  Mandalay  and  Peshawar;  but  can  they  stand 
the  shock  any  better  than  the  Amerind  withstood  the 
white  man's  methods  and  the  white  man's  whiskey? 
Modern  industry  is  strong  drink;  those  who  have  lived 
long  with  it,  despite  partial  immunity  born  of  expe- 
rience, are  none  too  happy;  and  those  less  experienced 
dally  with  it  at  the  risk  of  their  health,  customs,  gen- 
eral effectiveness,  and  political  stability. 

Viewing  from  these  angles  the  possibility  of  spread- 
ing industrialism,  a  tremendous  dilemma  presents  it- 
self. On  the  one  hand,  the  economic  forces  that  spread 
industrialism  outward  from  its  English  inception  are 
still  operative,  and  more  vigorous  than  before.  To  the 
constant  of  self-interest  is  added  a  heightened  state- 
interest  flowing  from  huge  debts.  These  converging 
interests  now  have  tools  at  their  disposal  which  admit 
to  efficient  production  breeds  of  cheap  men  not  hither- 
to available  as  industrial  workers.  These  dynamic 
forces  are  not  to  be  denied  their  trial  of  strength.  On 
the  other  hand,  peoples  about  to  be  introduced  to  in- 
dustrialism must  overcome  grave  social  and  political 


i68  THE     IRON     MAN 

inhibitions  before  they  cut  down  materially  the  de- 
mand for  the  white  man's  goods,  and  so  restrict  his 
influence  in  the  world.  These  contrary  forces  —  one 
set  positive,  the  other  negative;  one  the  essence  of 
progress,  the  other  the  essence  of  conservatism  —  are 
bound  to  do  battle  with  one  another  on  the  world- 
stage.  Upon  the  outcome  depends  the  future  of  ter- 
restrial society. 

Alarm  as  to  the  outcome  has  been  sounded  vocifer- 
ously enough ;  and  though  the  warnings  may  be  more 
strident  than  the  dangers  are  imminent,  still  the  out- 
look calls  for  the  highest  statesmanship.  The  trial 
period,  while  the  old  and  new  do  battle  in  Asia,  is  sure 
to  be  an  era  of  extreme  nervousness  in  international 
relations.  During  this  period  the  white  nations  must 
strive  toward  a  genuine  solidarity,  at  the  very  time 
when  their  traders  and  governments  are  forced  by 
powerful  economic  motives  to  cut  into  each  other's 
markets.  At  a  time,  too,  when  rankling  hate  persists, 
and  statecraft  is  still  under  the  shadow  of  chauvinism. 
Any  statesman  who  does  not  make  an  effort  to  over- 
come these  difficulties  deserves  ill  of  posterity ;  because 
the  situation  is  one  in  which  peace  must  be  labored 
for,  and  of  which  war  is  the  logical  outcome. 

There  can  be  no  durable  peace,  and  no  effective 
white  solidarity,  so  long  as  the  coal-and-iron  states 
continue  treading  the  path  of  economic  competition 
toward  another  Armageddon.  A  sword  is  suspended 
over  civilization,  and  that  sword  can  be  sheathed  only 
by  such  a  reorientation  of  industrialism  as  will  permit 
the  aggressive  nationalism  it  fosters  to  die  of  inanition. 


THE     IRON     MAN  169 

Much  may  be  done  by  international  agreement,  with 
force  back  of  the  agreement ;  more  may  be  done  by  the 
forward  spirits  in  each  industrial  society  forcing  into 
public  attention  these  internal  adjustments  necessary 
to  bring  social  and  political  evolution  into  line  with 
industrial  evolution.  The  more  energy  goes  into  in- 
ternal developments,  the  less  will  press  outward  to 
complicate  international  relations.  There  is  plenty  of 
work  for  all  governments  to  do  at  home,  before  their 
populations  recover  their  pre-war  trust  in  govern- 
ments. 

Every  alert  man  or  woman  recognizes  that  the  masses 
are  critical  of  governments  in  this  year  of  grace. 
The  conviction  is  growing  that  the  war  was  of  eco- 
nomic origin.  Men  are  no  longer  willing  to  turn  out 
war  as  a  by-product  of  goods  —  on  machines.  Since  a 
prime  source  of  belligerency  is  goods-competition, 
sovereignty  has  become  a  matter  of  control  over  ma- 
chines as  well  as  over  men.  That  is  the  direction  in 
which  competent  governments  must  move ;  and  those 
which  fail  to  keep  step  will  possess  no  valid  reason  for 
existence  in  the  automatic-machine  age.  The  peoples 
of  the  earth  look  to  governments  to  set  up  a  moral 
control  over  machine  use ;  and  this  instinctive  turning 
to  the  state  for  relief  is  sound  to  the  core,  since  states 
are  the  only  groupings  of  humanity  strong  enough  to 
harness  the  Iron  Man  to  the  chariot  of  human  well- 
being. 


IX 
THE     IRON    MAN'S    LEGACY 

WHY  all  this  bother  about  industry?  Why  worry 
ourselves  attempting  to  understand  life  and 
evaluate  its  processes,  when  our  test  of  life  is  short 
and  our  recommendations  of  doubtful  validity? 

The  answer  is  bound  to  be  mixed.  For  instance,  I 
write  this  partly  to  prove  my  uniqueness  among  men, 
since  no  other  could,  or  would,  do  this  task  in  just 
this  way.  Also,  I  do  it  to  satisfy  my  will  to  power, 
since  to  influence  other  minds  is  to  dominate  them  in 
some  degree,  even  though  the  method  be  the  gentle 
one  of  persuasion.  But  to  some  extent  I  do  it  out  of  a 
sense  of  responsibility  to  posterity,  to  the  race. 

One's  feeling  of  responsibility  for  the  future  meas- 
ures one's  progress  in  civilization.  The  primal  savage 
bears  no  such  burden ;  but  let  him  grow  ever  so  little 
civilized,  —  to  the  point,  let  us  say,  of  founding  a 
home,  —  and  the  future  overtakes  him.  He  may  con- 
cern himself  only  with  the  possible  weal  or  woe  of  his 
own  household  after  he  is  gone,  and  the  disposition 
of  his  trophies  and  gear;  but  responsibility  for  the 
future  is  likely  to  widen  and  deepen  as  the  social  group 
expands.  The  clansman  gives  thought  to  the  future 
of  his  clan,  the  tribesman  to  the  future  of  his  tribe,  the 
citizen  to  that  of  his  state ;  and  those  whose  intellects 
and  sympathies  transcend  state  boundaries  are  fated 
to  feel  a  responsibility  for  the  future  of  all  men. 

Our  whole  civilization  is  geared,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, to  the  future.  There  is  a  selfish  motive  in  that, 


THE     IRON     MAN  171 

to  be  sure,  since  we  expect  posterity  to  pay  our  public 
debts.  But  fundamentally  our  sense  of  responsibility 
for  the  future  is  unselfish.  We  work  and  save  and  plan 
and  fret  so  prodigiously  in  the  present,  in  the  hope 
that  our  children  and  our  neighbors'  children,  unto 
the  thousandth  generation,  shall  live  more  gloriously 
than  ourselves,  and  realize  more  nearly  the  utmost 
material  and  spiritual  values  of  life.  Vain  thought, 
perhaps ;  nevertheless  compelling  enough  to  influence 
not  only  most  public  expenditures,  but  much  private 
spending  and  giving.  Children,  born  and  unborn,  are 
the  finite  reason  for  civilization;  adults  toil  to  main- 
tain and  improve  civilization,  in  order  to  bestow  it  as 
a  going  concern  upon  posterity.  We  fling  the  torch, 
and  trust  that  those  who  catch  it  may  not  get  their 
fingers  burned  as  badly  as  we  have. 

The  thought  of  Chinese  worshiping  their  ancestors 
amuses  us,  yet  we  proceed  with  no  better  reason  to 
worship  posterity.  The  Chinese,  at  least,  know  what 
their  ancestors  have  done  to  deserve  sacrifices,  while 
we  have  n't  the  faintest  idea  whether  our  descendants 
are  going  to  be  worthy  of  our  sacrifices.  We  take  pos- 
terity on  faith.  Yet,  if  this  element  of  futurity  were 
eliminated,  civilization  would  be  meaningless,  a  trav- 
ail not  worth  while  for  the  masses,  and  a  meaningless 
adventure  in  control  for  the  directing  class.  If  evolu- 
tion is  simply  change,  and  not  progress ;  if  the  human 
family  cannot  advance  in  morality,  justice,  and  fair 
play  beyond  existing  norms,  then  all  who  can  might  as 
well  go  on  vacation  and  let  things  slump.  It  is  pre- 
cisely because  our  sort  of  man  cherishes  the  idea  of 


172  THE     IRON     MAN 

race-betterment,  that  he  keeps  on  trying.  He  is  often 
betrayed,  and  more  often  betrays  himself;  and  when 
he  succeeds  he  frequently  finds  the  results  of  change 
worse  than  no  change  would  have  been;  nevertheless 
the  ideal  remains  undamaged.  This  habit  of  looking 
forward  instead  of  backward,  of  prospection  instead 
of  introspection  or  retrospection,  is  what,  at  bottom, 
has  put  the  white  race  in  command  of  human  affairs. 

Consequently  the  effect  of  the  functional  revolution 
of  the  automatic  machine  upon  the  race  is  bound  to 
be  the  most  important  of  all  its  effects.  Its  material 
advantages  are  of  no  surpassing  moment,  unless  they 
can  be  transmitted  beneficially ;  its  ills  are'  of  no  great 
consequence,  if  they  can  be  overcome  before  they  break 
down  the  fibre  of  the  race  too  far  for  recovery.  In  as- 
saying the  value  of  adjustments  in  industry,  whether 
they  be  economic,  psychological,  social,  or  political,  — 
or  a  medley  of  these,  —  we  are  bound  to  consider 
what  their  effect  is  likely  to  be  upon  race-evolution. 
We  shall  not  be  here  when  the  verdict  comes  in;  never- 
theless there  is  that  in  us  which  insists  that  we  pose 
the  question,  make  the  inquiry,  and  proceed  with  the 
ultimate  in  view  of  benefiting  posterity. 

In  spite  of  the  scientists,  there  is  none  too  much 
light  at  hand.  The  natural  laws  affecting  heredity  are 
still  far  from  precisely  outlined;  there  are  gaps  in  the 
testimony,  which  still  make  life  a  mysterious,  august 
riddle.  Nevertheless,  in  all  humility,  let  us  proceed. 

As  far  as  we  are  aware,  every  mental  and  physical 
attribute  of  man  once  possessed  definite  survival  value, 
and,  for  all  that  we  know  to  the  contrary,  may  still 


THE     IRON     MAN  173 

possess  that  value.  In  a  changing  environment,  over 
immeasurable  periods  of  time,  these  became  fixed  in 
the  main,  but  continue  variable  in  minors.  The  aver- 
age cephalic  index  of  a  tribe  is  approximately  standard 
over  the  tribe;  but  few  out  of  many  will  have  heads 
matching  exactly  the  average  measurement  for  the 
whole  group.  The  human  hand  has  become  standard- 
ized at  five  fingers;  yet  skin  remains  unstandardized, 
and  no  two  humans  have  the  same  finger-prints.  As 
the  conditions  of  life  change,  certain  attributes,  men- 
tal and  physical,  gain,  while  others  lose,  importance. 
A  keen  sense  of  smell  is  a  nuisance  to  a  modern ;  hence 
noses  grow  less  sensitive.  So,  likewise,  the  subcon- 
scious mind  is  an  inchoate  network  of  inherited  mem- 
ories, which  it  is  conceivable  we  might  do  without;  at 
times  they  are  most  embarrassing;  still,  for  all  we 
know,  shifting  circumstances  may  call  some  of  them 
definitely  into  consciousness  at  any  moment ;  and  what 
to  a  utilitarian  seems  like  useless  lumber  in  the  for- 
gotten attic  of  the  mind  may  prove  to  be  quite  the 
most  valuable  heritage  we  can  leave  our  children. 

How  far  the  individual  mind  may  be  dulled  by  close 
daily  association  with  automatic  machinery  depends, 
of  course,  upon  the  variety  of  interests  that  intrigue 
that  mind  after  working  hours,  and  what  defenses  it 
can  set  up  against  the  inroads  of  pathological  fatigue 
while  at  work.  To  apprehend  the  factors  entering  into 
that  phase  of  the  Iron  Man's  progress,  however,  is 
child's  play  compared  with  discovering  to  what  extent 
the  effects  of  such  dulling  are  transmitted  to  succeed- 
ing generations.  After  interminable  argument,  we  are 


174  THE     IRON     MAN 

still  far  from  unanimous  upon  the  relative  weight  of 
environment  and  heredity  in  determining  mind,  body, 
and  character.   In  general,  we  know  that  like  tends  to 
bring  forth  like,  in  certain  ratios  established  by  Mendel 
and  dignified  by  the  name  of  the  Mendelian  Law;  but 
that  there  are  limits  to  this  sort  of  determinism  may 
be  deduced  from  De  Vries's  experiments  with  "sports." 
And  finally,  no  one  can  estimate  with  any  certainty 
how   many   generations   of   minds    may  be    dulled, 
and  how  many  generations  of  bodies  stunted,  before 
such  shortcomings  become  fixed  enough  for  inevitable 
transmission.    Anywhere  within  a  thousand  years,  at 
least,  we  must  qualify  the  potency  of  heredity  by  say- 
ing that  in  a  single  generation  of  favorable  environ- 
ment one  individual  in  a  race  series  may  advance  as 
far  as  many  generations  of  his  forbears  declined ;  and 
that  the  sustaining  of  favorable  environment  through 
several  generations  may  wipe  out,  for  practical  pur- 
poses, traces  of  a  much  longer  decline.   Nevertheless, 
we  have  no  reason  to  bank  upon  such  good  fortune 
coming  adventitiously,  or  by  sport,  to  any  racial  line ; 
and  hence  the  dependable  way  to  promote  race-better- 
ment is  by  grappling  here  and  now  with  the  degener- 
ating tendencies  in  our  common  environment. 

The  effect  of  industry  upon  race  is  a  question  so 
broad  that  it  may  be  divided  into  two  parts :  how  far 
does  industry  cause  average  folk  to  degenerate,  and 
how  far  does  it  assist  or  restrain  defectives  from 
multiplying? 

Indirect  as  well  as  direct  effects  may  be  noted  in  any 
industrial  city.  Long  habituation  to  a  monotonous, 


THE     IRON     MAN  175 

machine-paced  task  must  tend  to  render  the  operative 
less  adaptable  and  less  alert  than  he  would  be  if  em- 
ployed in  an  occupation  permitting  more  variety  of 
effort  and  thought.  In  turn,  lessened  adaptability 
renders  him  less  able  to  cope  with  his  environment 
successfully.  This  is  a  direct  effect;  and  enough  has 
already  been  said  on  this  theme  to  make  detail  un- 
necessary here. 

An  indirect  effect,  perhaps  of  equal  seriousness, 
flows,  not  from  the  tool,  but  from  its  location.  In- 
dustry is  a  town-process,  and  city  life  presents  patent 
race-dangers.  Rural  birth-rates  usually  exceed  city 
birth-rates,  and  city  death-rates  exceed  rural  death- 
rates,  at  least  among  homogenous  and  long-settled 
populations.  Recent  figures  on  occupational  life-ex- 
pectancy rate  farmers  highest  and  office-workers  and 
clerks  lowest;  the  average  farmer  lives  to  be  fifty-eight 
years  of  age,  the  average  office- worker  to  be  thirty-six. 
Indoor  vocations  are  more  deadly  than  outdoor  voca- 
tions; the  average  stonemason  lives  longer  than  the 
average  machine  operative.  The  English  observed, 
fairly  early  in  the  industrial  era  which  swelled  old 
towns  and  built  new  ones,  —  Carlyle's  "ant-hills," 
—  that  cities  consume  population.  They  put  it  long 
ago  into  a  mathematical  ratio  sanctioned  by  common 
observation :  fifty  miles  distant  from  London  a  family 
will  last  a  hundred  years;  a  hundred  miles,  two  hun- 
dred years;  the  more  easily  a  family  gets  to  town,  the 
more  time  it  stays  in  town,  and  the  quicker  it  disap- 
pears. Quick  transportation  no  doubt  has  reduced  the 
differentials  in  family  death-rates  by  hastening  the 


176  THE     IRON     MAN 

process  of  decay  all  round.  Gal  ton,  proceeding  statis- 
tically, found  that  London  families  run  out  in  four 
generations;  unless  London  were  recruited  constantly 
by  new  blood  from  the  countryside,  it  would  degener- 
ate into  a  hamlet  within  a  hundred  years.  Havelock 
Ellis,  examining  the  biologic  influence  of  London  upon 
British  genius,  says  of  1030  leading  figures  through 
seven  hundred  years:  "  It  seems  impossible  to  find  any 
eminent  person  who  belongs  to  London  through  all 
his  grandparents.  It  very  rarely  occurs  that  even  one 
grandparent  was  born  in  London."  Great  men  and 
women  were  born  in  London,  and  great  men  and 
women  were  born  in  the  country,  of  London-born 
grandparents;  but  within  three  generations  eminence 
had  departed  from  strictly  city-bred  lines.  The  evi- 
dence indicates  that  cities  cause  populations  to  de- 
generate in  quality  as  well  as  to  decrease  in  quantity. 
Of  the  two  effects,  the  former,  of  course,  is  the  more 
serious ;  quantity  will  usually  take  care  of  itself,  while 
quality  is  something  which  must  be  either  fought  for  or 
sought.  That  is  to  say,  conflict,  in  a  primitive  society, 
enforces  a  standard  of  excellence  automatically ;  while 
a  civilization  less  brutal  can  achieve  an  equal  stand- 
ard of  excellence  only  by  taking  thought  for  the 
morrow. 

City  life,  with  its  hurry,  noise,  and  confinements, 
puts  the  human  organism  under  obvious  strains.  As 
Dr.  Arnold  L.  Jacoby,  psychiatrist  of  the  Detroit 
Municipal  Court,  says,  "City  living  uncovers  weak 
spots  in  the  mental  armor,  which  might  never  have 
appeared  under  the  calmer  and  less  grinding  condi- 


THE     IRON     MAN  177 

tions  of  rural  and  village  life."  Certain  races  stand 
the  racket  of  the  towns  better  than  others.  The  Jews, 
probably  owing  to  immunity  born  of  compulsory  city 
life  through  many  generations,  are  biologically  the 
most  successful  city-dwellers;  Negroes,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  whom  are  comparatively  fresh  from  the 
soil,  the  least  successful.  Anglo-Saxons,  if  London  be 
taken  as  an  example,  fare  ill  in  towns.  In  general, 
swart,  short  folk  withstand  congestion  better  than 
fair-haired,  long-geared  peoples  of  the  Nordic  strain, 
who  seem  to  need  space  for  their  labors  and  adven- 
ture for  their  souls.  In  so  far,  then,  as  the  Nordic 
strains  are  esteemed  superior  contributors  to  the  in- 
stitutions we  value  most  highly,  industry  has  helped 
to  depreciate  race-quality  by  concentrating  machines 
and  men  so  thickly  in  cities. 

Lothrop  Stoddard  puts  the  case  squarely:  "The 
racial  displacements  induced  by  a  changed  economic 
or  social  environment  are,  indeed,  almost  incalculable. 
....  Two  hundred  years  ago  the  Mediterranean 
element  in  England  was  probably  very  small.  The 
industrial  revolution  reversed  the  selective  process  and 
to-day  the  small,  dark  types  in  England  increase  not- 
ably in  each  generation.  The  swart  cockney  is  a  re- 
surgence of  the  primitive  Mediterranean  stock.  .  .  . 
An  ill-balanced  faulty  environment  penalized  the  su- 
perior strains  and  favored  inferior  types." 

And  again :  ' '  The  cramped  factory  and  the  crowded 
city  weeded  out  the  big,  blond  Nordic  with  portentous 
rapidity;  whereas  the  little  brunette  Mediterranean, 
in  particular,  adapted  himself  to  the  operative's  bench 


178  THE     IRON     MAN 

or  the  clerk's  stool,  prospered  —  and  reproduced  his 
kind." 

In  his  "English  Traits,"  written  in  the  eigh teen- 
forties,  Emerson  said :  "The  robust,  rural  Saxon  degen- 
erated in  the  mills  to  the  Leicester  stockinger,  to  the 
imbecile  Manchester  spinner,  far  on  their  way  to  be 
spiders  and  needles."  Far  likelier,  the  Saxon,  broadly 
speaking,  stayed  on  the  land  and  sent  his  increase 
overseas  (whole  townships  of  my  native  county  were 
cleared  by  such  stalwart  sons  of  England) ;  while  the 
human  "spiders  and  needles"  spawned  from  other 
and  less  sturdy  strains,  more  amenable  to  discipline 
and  less  irked  by  routine.  But,  after  all,  it  is  less  im- 
portant to  know  precisely  how  industry  causes  depre- 
ciation in  the  British  people  than  to  realize  (1)  that 
England  contains  a  smaller  proportion  of  strong, 
beautiful,  and  independent  beings  than  it  did  before 
Watt  invented  the  steam-engine;  and  (2)  that  industry 
is  in  no  small  degree  responsible  for  that  depreciation 
in  human  values. 

Striking  evidence  on  this  point  appears  in  Philip 
Gibbs's  "  Now  It  Can  Be  Told."  Two  typical  English- 
men fought  the  war.  One  was  a  cockney,  small,  nerv- 
ous, nervy;  the  other,  taller,  more  dogged,  with  more 
bottom  for  a  long  pull,  revealing  the  traits  long  held 
characteristic  of  Englishmen.  The  latter  predomi- 
nated in  country  regiments,  the  former  in  city  regi- 
ments. ' '  The  Bantams ' '  did  not  represent  the  extreme 
decline  of  British  manhood,  but  merely  registered  the 
decline  down  to  a  certain  standard,  below  which 
throng  still  more  unfit  shoals  of  humanity,  valueless  in 


THE     IRON     MAN  179 

the  supreme  test  of  war.  Below  regulation  height,  but 
full  of  spirit,  these  Lilliputians  tried  their  level  best  to 
play  the  man;  but  they  could  not  walk  fast  enough,  or 
carry  pounds  enough;  and,  after  ordeal  by  battle,  were 
taken  out  of  the  line  and  given   less  trying  tasks. 
"Most  of  them"  (says   Gibbs)   "came  from  Lanca- 
shire,  Cheshire,   Durham,   and   Glasgow,   being  the 
dwarfed  children  of  industrial  England  and  its  mid- 
Victorian  cruelties.    Others  were  from  London.  .  .  . 
Some  of  them  had  big  heads  on  small  bodies,  as  if  they 
suffered  from  water  on  the  brain.  .  .  .   General  Hal- 
dane,  as  commander  of  the  6th  Corps,  paraded  them 
and  poked  his  stick  at  the  more  wizened  ones,  the  ob- 
viously unfit,  the  degenerates,  and  said  at  each  prod, 
"  '  You  can  go  —  You  —  You.'  " 

General  Haldane  poked  the  Bantams  with  his  stick 
and  bade  them  begone.  Whither?  Whither,  indeed, 
but  back  to  their  machines,  where  they  belonged  and 
from  which  they  never  should  have  been  divided  by 
duty.  And  there,  to  paraphrase  the  nursery  rhyme, 
they  function  very  well,  better  perhaps  than  the  big 
fellows.  At  least,  if  not  more  efficient  per  man,  they 
are  no  doubt  more  efficient  per  unit  of  output,  else 
from  such  beginnings  they  would  not  have  been  pro- 
duced in  such  numbers.  Where  the  race  was  to  the 
strong,  they  failed ;  but  where  the  race  is  to  him  who 
turns  out  most  goods  at  least  cost,  they  hold  their  own 
and  increase,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  eat 
less.  In  a  strictly  utilitarian  world,  which  ours  may 
become  if  we  don't  watch  out,  to  raise  men  taller  than 
convenient  machine-height  may  be  esteemed  a  wan- 


i8o  THE     IRON     MAN 

ton  waste  of  food-stuffs.  Economic  efficiency,  in  that 
case,  would  be  attained  at  the  price  of  physical 
deficiency. 

Bantam  body,  too,  may  mean  a  bantam  brain;  in 
our  section  of  America,  where  industry  is  new,  but 
powerfully  equipped  with  machinery  admirably  de- 
signed to  oust  mind  from  the  common  man's  produc- 
tion, more  than  one  leader  close  to  the  grind  has  told 
me  that  industrial  efficiency,  as  carried  on  to-day, 
makes  also  for  mental  deficiency.  One  of  my  fellow 
citizens  in  charge  of  the  industrial  relations  of  a  large 
factory  shocked  an  audience  of  industry-adoring 
business  men  by  saying,  "We  are  putting  the  brand 
of  industry  —  stupidity  —  upon  the  brows  of  our 
workers." 

The  tongue  of  the  people  speaketh  much  truth; 
twenty  years  ago  we  spoke  of  "  the  submerged  tenth" ; 
now,  since  the  army  tests  showed  that  approximately 
one  fifth  of  the  registered  adult  males  in  the  United 
States  between  18  and  45  possessed  mentalities  below 
age  fourteen,  by  test,  we  must  speak  of  the  "sub- 
merged fifth."  And,  lest  it  be  argued  that  accumulating 
physical  weakness  and  mental  weakness  in  industrial 
countries  are  not  incompatible  with  moral  strength, 
let  us  recall  that  the  average  female  delinquent  now 
makes  her  first  appearance  before  the  police  two  years 
earlier  than  she  did  ten  years  ago.  The  average  age  of 
such  appearance  is  now  fourteen  to  fifteen  years;  it 
used  to  be  sixteen  to  seventeen  years. 

Where  and  as  functioning,  machine  industry  and 
its  accompanying  urban  congestion  make  survival 


THE     IRON     MAN  181 

easier  for  inferior  strains  and  more  difficult  for  su- 
perior strains.  Genetic  values,  we  are  told,  run  con- 
stant; but  automatic  machinery  tends,  both  directly 
and  indirectly,  to  reduce  the  incentive  for  high  genetic 
stocks  to  reproduce  at  former  birth-rates,  while  in- 
creasing the  incentive  for  rapid  growth  of  low  genetic 
stocks.  Certain  disgenic  influences  —  such  as  poor 
housing,  inadequate  feeding,  youthful  excesses,  lack 
of  moral  discipline,  and  an  educational  system  not 
adjusted  to  compensate  for  the  inhibitions  of  mech- 
anized toil  —  may  be  overcome  in  the  main ;  never- 
theless, the  tendency  of  our  times  is  toward  lower 
physical  and  mental  levels  for  the  led  majority  of  the 
industrial  group.  There  are  offsets,  of  course,  —  not- 
ably higher  standards  of  living  for  many  families,  and 
a  growing  power  in  labor  to  find  leaders  to  bespeak  its 
needs,  —  but  as  yet  these  are  not  potent  enough  to 
balance  the  scale. 

We  have  been  considering  the  effect  of  machinery 
upon  normal  folk;  the  parallel  question  of  its  effect 
upon  the  multiplication  of  defective  mental  types 
now  presents  itself.  The  highest  type  of  mental  de- 
fective, the  moron,  is  defined  by  Pierce  Bailey  as  "one 
capable  of  earning  a  living  under  favorable  circum- 
stances, but  incapable  of  competing  on  even  terms 
with  his  normal  fellows."  Below  the  moron  status,  this 
inability  to  compete  becomes  more  and  more  marked  ; 
until,  in  the  congenital  idiot,  it  reaches  the  absolute. 
The  idiot  is  either  cared  for  or  he  starves. 

This  inability  to  compete  for  livelihood  on  equal 
terms  exercised,  from  the  very  beginnings  of  human 


182  THE     IRON     MAN 

existence,  a  salutary  check  upon  the  multiplication 
of  mental  defectives.  In  the  old  days,  when  man  com- 
peted nip-and-tuck  against  his  fellows  and  the  beasts, 
the  less  adaptable,  slower  thinking  and  moving  mem- 
bers of  the  tribe  were  eliminated  more  speedily  than 
we  eliminate  our  weaklings.  As  long  as  skill  remained 
the  dominant  element  in  winning  subsistence,  the  less 
skilled  were  handicapped  in  finding  wages,  and  so 
found  it  difficult  to  marry,  support  a  home,  and  bring 
their  young  to  maturity.  Agriculture  for  the  back- 
ward boys,  domestic  service  for  the  backward  girls  — 
these  were  economic  refuges  for  the  inefficients.  For 
those  who  could  not  meet  the  requirements  of  these 
occupations  self-support  was  impossible.  The  Iron 
Man  has  now  added  simple  routine  factory  work  to 
the  list. 

The  more  simple  and  monotonous  factory  work 
became,  the  more  advantageously  the  factory  could 
use  persons  whose  wits  were  neither  keen  enough  nor 
elastic  enough  to  master  processes  requiring  skill  and 
training.  To  acquire  a  hand-trade  was  beyond  them ; 
to  use  a  simple  machine  judiciously,  beyond  most  of 
them.  However,  as  division  of  labor  developed  toward 
its  present  minuteness,  higher-grade  defectives  were 
relieved  to  some  extent  of  a  burden  under  which  their 
kind  had  labored  from  time  immemorial.  Automatic 
machinery  gives  countless  men  and  women  of  low 
mentality  economic  opportunity,  at  wages  approxi- 
mately equal  to  those  earned  by  higher  types  working 
at  like  jobs.  Indeed,  automatization  has  now  reach- 
ed a  point  where  individual  capacities  of  workmen 


THE     IRON     MAN  183 

count  for  so  little  that  large  employers  of  labor  find 
less  keen  minds  cheaper  than  keen  minds  in  many 
berths,  because  the  less  keen  mind  presents  fewer 
labor  complications  to  the  boss,  is  more  easily  satis- 
fied, feels  labor-strain  less,  and  is  less  trouble  all  round. 
In  other  words,  the  intellectual  level  of  labor  fixed  by 
the  Iron  Man  is  such  that  a  moron  trained  in  habits 
of  doing,  regularity,  and  obedience,  is,  for  many  prac- 
tical purposes,  more  valuable  to  his  boss  for  goods- 
production  than  one  higher  in  the  mental  scale.  Hav- 
ing brought  to  the  machine  less  mental  luggage  of 
sorts  not  required  by  the  shop,  his  adjustment  to  the 
present  needs  of  industry  is  simpler  for  both  parties  to 
the  labor-bargain. 

This  economic  brace  which  the  Iron  Man  gives  to 
the  defectives  in  their  hitherto  unequal  struggle  for 
existence  translates  itself  to  some  extent  into  vital 
statistics.  The  twelve-year-old  man  (mentally)  of 
grown  stature,  who  works  well  in  his  machine-niche, 
may  sustain  a  home  and  rear  children  in  a  security 
impossible  to  one  of  the  same  mental  age  a  century 
ago.  His  wife  may  work  in  the  mill,  if  she  chooses;  his 
children  can  get  on  the  machines  not  long  after  the 
state  gives  them  working  papers.  Since  the  low- 
grade  man  is  always  able  to  outbid  and  outbreed  his 
betters,  because  content  with  a  lower  standard  of  liv- 
ing, the  influence  of  automatic  machinery  and  extreme 
division  of  labor  is  to  drive  higher  mental  types  out  of 
the  shop,  and  draw  lower  mental  types  into  the  shop. 
This  tendency  battles  at  present  against  the  shop's 
need  to  recruit  foremen,  superintendents,  tool-makers, 


184  THE     IRON     MAN 

and  other  men  of  skill  and  leadership,  to  give  point 
and  direction  to  the  routine  labors  of  the  massof  work- 
ing folk ;  but  this  check  may  not  long  continue  to  be  as 
important  as  it  now  seems,  since  manufacturers  are 
beginning  to  look  to  public  education  to  provide  them 
with  skilled  mechanics,  and  presently  may  do  likewise 
for  foremen  and  superintendents.  At  any  rate,  since 
the  thought-compartment  of  modern  industry  con- 
tains a  minority  of  employees,  and  that  minority  tends 
to  decrease  in  numbers  relatively  to  the  led  majority, 
thepressureof  the  Iron  Man  biologically,  at  this  stage,  is 
toward  descent-in-type.  The  few  cannot  lift  the  many 
biologically ;  the  best  they  can  do  is  to  protect  them- 
selves against  admixture  through  eugenic  matings  — 
a  defense  reaction  laudable  enough,  but  of  extremely 
limited  effect  on  the  matings  of  the  multitude. 

Obviously,  this  view  of  the  case  leads  one  a  step 
further  along  the  path  toward  the  pessimistic  conclu- 
sion that  industrial  efficiency  is  forcing  a  cleavage  be- 
tween the  masses  and  the  classes,  in  mental  as  well  as 
in  financial  and  social  status.  We  who  live  in  factory 
towns  know  how  steadily  this  gulf  is  widening;  in  spite 
of  conscious  and  intelligent  efforts  put  forth,  it  is  be- 
coming more  and  more  difficult  to  establish  and  main- 
tain social  contacts  between  those  who  live  on  wages 
and  those  who  live  on  salaries,  rents,  and  dividends. 
The  class-hired  delegates  to  good  works  meet  the  bor- 
der-line folk  professionally,  now  that  their  principals 
have  pretty  much  ceased  to  meet  the  masses  socially; 
but  uplift  can  scarcely  be  considered  a  social  contact. 
Indeed,  we  seem  well  on  our  way  to  develop,  with  the 


THE     IRON     MAN  185 

help  of  the  Iron  Man  and  despite  public  education, 
an  American  proletariat,  definitely  shut  off  by  mental 
lacks  from  the  upper  reaches  of  society  —  a  consider- 
able class  numerically,  whose  contribution  to  the  state 
is  labor-time  and  children  capable  only  of  supplying 
more  labor-time.  The  Romans  named  their  lower 
class  of  freemen  the  proletariat,  because  its  members 
proliferated  freely,  supplying  the  state  with  one  es- 
sential to  its  life  —  soldiers.  We  seem  by  way  of  creating 
its  duplicate,  except  that,  in  addition  to  supplying 
man-power  for  war,  our  proletariat  may  also  be  ex- 
pected to  do  work  for  which  the  Romans  depended 
upon  their  slaves. 

This  is  a  dire  prospect,  and  a  good  deal  is  likely  to 
happen  to  prevent  it.  But  we  must  admit  the  ten- 
dency, and  admit  further  that  this  tendency  of  mod- 
ern industry  to  stabilize  an  ever-increasing  body  of 
deficients  into  a  controlled  servile  class,  to  do  our 
mean  and  monotonous  work  for  us,  draws  strength 
from  experiments  in  practical  psychology.  One  such 
experiment,  widely  commented  upon,  was  conducted 
by  Elizabeth  B.  Bigelow,  to  determine  the  possibilities 
of  subnormal  girls  in  factory  work.  The  field  chosen 
was  the  production  of  rubber  goods,  in  which  process 
division  of  labor  is  less  advanced  than  in  many  other 
lines  of  production,  and  hence  presents  more  diffi- 
culties to  the  subjects  up  for  training.  Relating  her 
experience  in  Mental  Hygiene  for  April,  1921,  she 
concludes  that,  with  proper  training,  even  those  de- 
ficients previously  discharged  for  cause  can  be  trained 
to  function  efficiently. 


186  THE     IRON     MAN 

"It  is  now  generally  known  that  the  effectiveness 
of  a  mental  defective  depends  less,  within  certain 
limits,  upon  the  grade  of  mental  defect,  than  upon  the 
habits  of  doing  that  he  has  acquired.  An  individual 
with  a  mental  age  of  eight  years,  who  has  definitely 
acquired  habits  of  industry,  obedience,  and  regularity, 
is  a  far  more  useful  member  of  society  than  a  high- 
grade  moron  who  has  never  acquired  such  habits." 

If  industry  is  unwilling  to  take  the  expense  of  train- 
ing defectives,  Miss  Bigelow  thinks  it  would  be  well 
worth  while  for  the  state  to  pay  the  salary  of  a  director. 
Both  Miss  Bigelow  and  Dr.  Arnold  Gesell,  who  com- 
ments on  her  report  in  the  same  issue  of  Mental 
Hygiene,  commend  vocational  training  for  defectives 
in  the  public  schools,  in  order  to  fit  them  for  industrial 
work. 

These  and  other  investigators  in  the  field  of  in- 
dustrial psychology,  in  their  zeal  to  render  defective 
individuals  self-supporting  and  bring  forth  the  full 
productive  power  of  the  nation,  may  be  overlooking 
some  of  the  vital  consequences  of  their  programme. 
It  is  one  thing  to  relieve  society  in  this  generation  of 
the  cost  of  maintaining  a  maladjusted  moron  or  an 
institutionalized  imbecile,  and  quite  another  to  lower 
social  tone  and  race-quality  by  enabling  such,  through 
economic  adjustment,  to  count  for  more  in  the  com- 
munity and  to  rear  more  numerous  offspring  than  he 
or  she  could  as  a  derelict  upon  the  ragged  edge  of  ex- 
istence. In  practice,  to  make  a  moron's  life  more  se- 
cure may  be  to  make  some  more  capable  person's  life 
less  secure,  if  they  chance  to  be  competitors  for  the 


THE     IRON     MAN  187 

same  job.  In  that  case,  you  have  change  but  no  prog- 
ress. Race  and  state,  indeed,  lose  more  than  industry 
gains. 

For  the  state  to  accelerate  the  progressive  mental 
impairment  of  the  race,  by  training  defectives  for 
industrial  pursuits,  seems  to  me  the  height  of  folly, 
unless,  at  the  same  time,  it  moves  toward  restraining 
the  fecundity  of  those  it  places.  Since  a  mental  de- 
fective, on  a  machine  job  keyed  to  his  powers,  may  be 
an  industrial  effective,  his  economic  security  is  likely 
to  work  out  in  the  normal  directions  of  home  and 
family.  It  may  be  feasible,  as  proposed,  to  control 
defectives  industrially  trained  so  closely  outside  of 
working  hours  that  they  do  not  propagate;  but  the 
dividing  line  between  the  normal  and  subnormal  is 
so  hazy  that  it  seems  unlikely  society  ever  can  re- 
strain, by  police  power,'  the  marital  inclination  of 
those  just  under  the  border-line.  As  long  as  a  man 
keeps  out  of  jail  and  meets  his  family  responsibilities 
halfway  well,  the  state  scarcely  can  regulate  the  most 
intimate  of  his  relations. 

I  have  stated  this  problem  of  the  biologic  effect  of 
automatic  machinery  to  three  psychiatrists.  They 
agree  that  modern  industrial  conditions  make  for  the 
perpetuation  and  increase  of  subnormal  types.  One 
voiced  the  opinion  that  border-line  cases,  through 
having  more  to  offer  economically,  might  secure 
better  mates  than  their  forbears,  and  so  improve  the 
strains.  The  others  fell  back  upon  the  "servile  class" 
theory.  Briefly,  that  theory  is  this :  since  most  of  the 
work  to  be  done  in  the  world  is  of  a  monotonous,  un- 


i88  THE     IRON     MAN 

inspiring  sort,  and  more  of  it  is  coming  to  be  done 
under  conditions  which  strain  painfully  the  average 
human  of  to-day,  the  development  of  a  numerically 
large  class  of  laborers,  attuned  to  perform  that  labor 
at  the  least  cost  to  themselves  and  society,  is  in  the 
nature  of  an  inevitable  evolution.  Highly  sensible, 
thought  one;  while  the  other  had  his  doubts.  He  con- 
sidered it  likely  that  the  proletariat,  after  being  leveled 
and  debased  by  the  Iron  Man,  might  undertake  to  do 
so  much  leveling  on  its  own  account  that  civilization 
would  be  impossible. 

To  accept  this  theory  of  the  servile  class  is  to  deny 
democracy,  because  the  servile  class  could  not  govern 
itself.  Whether  those  above  that  level  governed  ill  or 
well,  the  result  would  not  be  democratic  government, 
but  aristocratic  government.  It  is  extremely  doubtful 
if  our  people,  possessing  the  ballot,  will  accept  the 
logical  working-out  of  current  tendencies.  They  are 
far  from  ready,  now,  to  accept  without  protest  the  de- 
cay of  traditions  of  equality  and  opportunity,  which, 
however  weak  in  reality,  are  still  dominant  in  thought. 
Therefore,  the  state,  in  order  to  preserve  the  present 
order,  cannot  let  things  slide  to  the  point  where  the 
"have  nots"  accept  solidarity  as  an  accomplished 
fact.  No  matter  what  may  be  the  temper  of  other 
nations  under  class  alignments,  the  common  American 
is  not  likely  to  acquiesce  without  argument  in  his 
being  allotted  a  definitely  servile  status  in  society. 

But  whatever  the  state  does  to  preserve  its  people 
from  degeneration  can  scarcely  become  effective  ex- 
cept after  much  turmoil,  unless  those  who  direct 


THE     IRON     MAN  189 

work-relations  join  with  the  state  in  combating  the 
degenerating  effects  of  automatic  machinery.  The 
enterprisers  of  modern  industry  may  better  afford  to 
forego  the  economic  advantage  of  hiring  the  least  able- 
minded  they  can  use,  for  the  sake  of  maintaining  an 
able-minded  citizenry.  Reason,  after  all,  has  its  util- 
ity, not  so  much  nowadays  in  mass-production,  as  in 
determining  mass-action  out  of  the  shop  —  at  the 
polls  and  in  the  streets. 

Faced  with  a  choice  between  docile,  stupid  labor 
and  alert,  less  pliable  labor,  there  is  no  doubt  where 
the  choice  of  the  employer  will  fall  who  follows  the 
economic  motive  strictly.  Miss  Bigelow  says :  "It  is 
the  quality  of  labor  that  has  been  given,  rather  than 
the  intellectual  level,  that  concerns  the  employer  of  this 
variety  of  labor."  How  far  any  employer  follows  that 
motive  depends  partly  on  competition,  and  partly 
on  what  he  considers  his  duty  as  a  citizen  and  leader. 
If  pressed  too  hard  by  competitors,  he  may  hold  that 
he  has  no  choice  but  to  hire  the  cheapest,  least  trouble- 
some individuals  in  the  market  for  his  routine  jobs. 
But  usually  there  is  some  room  for  the  boss's  ideals  of 
serviceable  citizenship  to  function  in  his  business.  An 
employer  minded  to  make  normal  men  fairly  content 
on  jobs  in  which  defectives  would  consider  themselves 
in  clover,  certainly  could  go  a  long  way  in  that  direc- 
tion, provided  the  community  and  the  state  equally 
did  their  duty  by  giving  the  employed  an  inspiring 
social  environment  beyond  the  factory  walls.  To  ex- 
pect such  an  attitude  from  the  leaders  of  American 
industry  may  be  putting  too  much  faith  in  human 


i9o  THE     IRON     MAN 

nature,  as  it  grinds  out  goods  and  profits;  but,  after 
all,  many  of  these  men  are  great  citizens  as  well  as 
great  manufacturers,  and  their  sense  of  responsibility 
as  citizens  may  reinforce  their  fear  of  social  revolution 
sufficiently  to  move  them  to  consider  the  intellectual 
level  of  their  workers  rather  more  than  Miss  Bigelow 
thinks. 

Yet,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  the  utmost  effort 
put  forth  against  the  degenerating  influence  of  auto- 
matic machinery  is  likely  to  come,  not  from  the  state 
or  the  boss,  but  from  those  most  injured  by  the  mul- 
tiplication of  defectives  —  the  workers  in  the  shops. 
It  is  quite  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  workers 
above  moron  grade  will  resent  the  introduction  of  de- 
fectives so  keenly  that  bosses  dare  not  make  room  in 
the  mills  for  low  mentalities  as  fast  as  they  are  pro- 
duced. Even  in  unorganized  shops  negroes  are  now 
being  kept  off  machines  well  within  their  mental 
range,  because  the  settled  public  opinion  of  the  shop 
draws  the  color-line.  The  employees  simply  refuse  to 
associate  themselves  in  toil  with  persons  whom  they 
hold  to  be  inferior.  Conceivably,  labor  may  draw  a 
mental  line  of  exclusion  as  effectively  as  it  now  draws 
the  color-line,  and  for  the  same  reason  —  dislike  to 
associate  in  toil  with  persons  considered  inferior  and 
the  desire  to  protect  their  jobs  against  such  inroads. 
Insistence  of  craft-unions  upon  skill-requirements,  even 
after  machine-developments  have  vitiated  those  stand- 
ards economically,  draws  a  measure  of  social  justifica- 
tion from  this  source  —  the  standard  so  set  protects 
the  trade  against  mental  as  well  as  physical  dilution. 


THE     IRON     MAN  191 

The  social  necessity  for  more  worker-cooperation  in 
industrial  processes  finds  one  of  its  strongest  argu- 
ments precisely  here.  If  workers  in  unorganized  shops 
at  present  can  exercise  a  taboo  against  persons  con- 
sidered inferior  by  the  working  group,  a  kindred  taboo 
against  mental  defectives  will  be  effective  in  propor- 
tion as  the  workers  gain  cohesion  and  influence  within 
the  corporation.  As  group-pride  rises,  the  stronger 
will  be  the  protest  against  admitting  to  the  group 
those  who  do  not  reach  its  standard  of  fitness,  not 
merely  for  a  particular  job,  but  also  for  association  in 
counsel  and  recreation.  Here  lies  the  most  effective 
resistance  industry  can  offer  to  the  racial  degeneration 
likely  to  follow  upon  the  increasing  industrial  effi- 
ciency of  mental  defectives. 

One  swims  even  further  into  uncharted  currents 
when  one  attempts  to  discover  what  the  defectives 
themselves  are  likely  to  decide  with  relation  to  their 
own  destinies.  They  lack  normal  initiative,  and  hence 
take  kindly  to  direction  and  control;  yet  each  con- 
tinues to  form  judgments  and  act  upon  them  as  op- 
portunity permits.  What  will  be  their  attitude,  for 
instance,  toward  birth-control?  Their  fecundity,  to 
date,  has  resulted  from  necessity  in  which  passion  and 
ignorance  join;  pride  of  race  and  responsibility  to  the 
future  certainly  have  not  braced  these  slow-wit 
mothers  for  their  ordeal .  There  is  no  reason  for  believ- 
ing that  the  mentally  defective  woman  wants  more 
children  than  her  abler  sister;  in  fact,  her  attitude 
toward  her  infants  indicates  the  contrary.  If  she 
knew  how  to  avoid  childbearing,  the  chances  are  that 


i92  THE     IRON     MAN 

she  would  avoid  that  ordeal  sedulously,  simply  be- 
cause children  are  a  bother,  involving  sacrifice  and 
forethought,  both  of  which  attributes  are  in  her  most 
imperfectly  developed.  Notwithstanding  laws  against 
abortion,  against  the  sale  of  contraceptive  devices  and 
drugs,  and  against  the  dissemination  of  information 
upon  the  subject,  birth-control  is  a  growing  phe- 
nomenon. The  state,  whose  continued  existence  re- 
quires children  in  quantity,  has  an  excellent  reason 
for  continuing  to  outlaw  the  subject;  nevertheless, 
birth-control  is  practised  and  gradually  permeates 
lower  and  lower  social  strata.  Along  with  syphilis  and 
tuberculosis,  abortion  and  contraception  must  be 
reckoned  prime  causes  for  the  decline  in  the  negro 
birth-rate  in  the  United  States  in  the  last  ten  years. 
Twenty  years  ago  there  was  talk  of  the  negro  eventu- 
ally ousting  the  white  race  from  America,  through 
faster  breeding;  now  the  tables  have  turned,  the  white 
is  winning  the  race,  and  the  negro  in  America  hardly 
more  than  holds  his  own  from  year  to  year. 

Without  attempting  to  draw  any  comparison  be- 
tween the  average  negro  and  the  white  moron  as  to 
mental  capacity,  I  think  we  must  agree  that  both  are 
under  certain  disabilities  predisposing  them  toward 
race-suicide.  Neither  possesses  anything  like  social 
equality,  or  complete  freedom  of  economic  opportu- 
nity ;  both  are  under  bans  which  may  well  lead  adults 
to  conclude  that  life  is  not  greatly  worth  living  for 
themselves,  and  presumably  would  not  be  valued  by 
their  descendants.  When  folk  in  that  depressed  state 
of  mind  know  how  to  limit  offspring,  their  women  will 


THE     IRON     MAN  193 

dodge  motherhood  rather  often,  especially  as  home 
economic  difficulties  are  equally  eased  by  limiting  the 
number  of  children  born  therein.  Since  defectives  run 
greater  risks  than  normals  of  death  between  birth  and 
working  age,  it  follows  that  any  considerable  decrease 
in  births  in  families  of  low  mentality  might  go  a  long 
way  toward  counteracting  the  biologic  effects  of  their 
increased  economic  security  in  the  Automatic  Age. 

Here,  again,  is  a  test  of  strength  between  economics 
and  what  may  be  called  social  education,  the  educa- 
tion of  the  times  rather  than  of  the  schools.  The 
schools  do  not  teach  birth-control,  but  the  times  un- 
questionably do;  and  if  the  most  defective  mentally 
are  isolated  in  institutions,  then  those  nearer  the 
border-line  may  be  held  within  bounds,  themselves 
assisting. 

Finally,  a  more  stable  balance  in  life  and  toil  may 
be  expected  from  this  time  on,  a  settling  process,  draw- 
ing strength  from  too  many  sources  to  permit  of  dis- 
cussion here.  At  the  moment  this  works  grave  hard- 
ship upon  many  wage-earners ;  but  eventually  it  must 
inure  to  their  benefit,  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  succeed- 
ing generations,  since  stability  means  rather  more  to 
the  mass  than  flash  opportunity.  Emerson  remarked, 
of  England,  that  there  is  a  temperance  to  be  observed 
in  making  cloth,  as  in  eating  —  a  point  worth  noting 
and  coming  to  be  noted,  never  fear.  To  some  extent, 
at  least,  overgrown  industrial  cities  will  be  demobi- 
lized, and  cities  generally  revert  to  their  ancient  status, 
as  marts  for  the  produce  of  adjacent  territory.  A  folk 
nearer  the  land,  and  moving  at  a  slower  pace,  may  not 


i94  THE     IRON     MAN 

press  forward  with  such  mighty  leaps  as  we  Americans 
have  taken  of  late;  but,  so  circumstanced,  we  shall  be 
more  firmly  fixed  and  less  affected  by  the  degenerating 
tendencies  of  city  living  and  mechanized  toil,  and 
have  more  time  and  opportunity  to  purge  the  body 
politic  of  poisons  as  they  develop.  Nature,  the  great 
physician,  can  help  us  there. 

It  remains  to  be  seen  how  far  our  civilization,  by 
forethought  and  decisive  action,  can  overcome  those 
declines  in  racial  values  which  have  unseated  other 
civilizations  and  must  destroy  our  own,  unless  checked. 
Civilization  is  a  process  in  ameliorating  life;  and  as 
life  grows  easier,  weak  strains  in  the  population,  pre- 
viously kept  under  by  hardships,  increase  in  numbers. 
Machine  industry  accelerates  the  process,  while  sci- 
ence and  altruism  preserve  to  maturity  weaklings 
who,  under  fiercer  competition  and  harsher  conditions, 
could  never  have  lived  to  add  their  frailties  to  the 
stream  of  life.    Gradually  the  weaklings  accumulate 
in  numbers,  until  the  social  structure  disintegrates. 
Collapse,  partial  or  entire,  may  follow  war;  in  a  rough 
world  such  is  usually  the  case ;  but  dry-rot  within  the 
walls  is  a  standing  invitation  to  the  invader.    Social 
revolution  may  be  passive  as  well  as  active;  peoples 
may  have  no  will  to  defend  the  state,  even  though 
lacking  initiative  enough  to  change  it  through  revo- 
lution.   And  until  birth-control  is  world-wide  there 
will  always  be  potential  invaders  somewhere,  waiting 
as  waited  Goth  and  Vandal  beyond  the  Alps,  for  op- 
portunity to  inherit  that  which  they  could  not  build. 
States  come  and  go,  for  all  their  emphasis  upon  the 


THE     IRON     MAN  195 

static ;  civilizations  rise  and  fall ;  race  remains  and  life 
continues.  He  who  attempts  to  evaluate  the  effect 
upon  race-evolution  of  these  newer  elements  of  life,  — 
its  modern  tools  and  processes,  —  can  do  scarcely 
more  than  outline  the  problem,  since  we  are  here  face 
to  face  with  the  eternal  riddle  of  life  itself.  One  may 
say  with  confidence  merely  this  and  no  more:  the 
Automatic  Age  places  the  human  family  under  bonds 
to  posterity  to  use  all  its  resources  and  wisdom  in 
combating  the  degenerative  tendencies  of  functional 
machinery  in  race-evolution.  The  battle  for  a  better 
world  may  be  won  with  the  help  of  the  Iron  Man,  but 
not  through  machines  only;  and  not  at  all,  unless 
reason  replaces  in  large  degree  the  captaincy  which 
instinct  now  holds  over  industry  and  society. 


X 

EDUCATION     FOR    LEISURE 

A  YEAR  ago  I  sat  in  a  meeting  of  schoolmen  and 
leading  citizens,  who  were  wrestling  with  plans 
for  a  new  high  school  and  technical  college.  The  lead- 
ing citizens  were  manufacturers  of  motor-cars,  be- 
cause our  town's  reason  for  existence  is  the  production 
of  such  cars,  of  which  we  can  be  relied  upon  to  deliver 
upwards  of  one  hundred  thousand  a  year,  when  the 
public  buys  them  fast  enough  to  clear  the  loading 
docks.  Our  leading  citizens,  consequently,  are  leaders 
in  their  industry  as  well.  For  downright  public  spirit, 
no  more  satisfactory  group  of  employers  can  be  found 
anywhere.  They  took  it  for  granted  that  our  new 
high  school  and  technical  college  was  to  be  keyed  to 
utility.  They  wanted  practical  education,  or,  as  one 
phrased  it,  " education  for  life."  As  their  programme 
unfolded,  it  seemed  that  their  goal  was,  rather,  educa- 
tion for  production.  They  may  have  seen  new  light 
since  the  wheels  slowed  down,  but  neither  then  nor 
later  did  the  schoolmen  offer  any  protest. 

As  an  outsider,  a  member  of  neither  group,  I  sat 
there  dazed,  silent,  a  little  dashed  and  fearful,  as  one 
amid  new  ruins.  I  knew  there  was  something  wrong 
with  the  programme  of  these  manufacturers ;  but  what 
it  was,  I  could  not  say.  Now  I  know,  because  I  have 
been  studying  the  reactions  of  automatic  machinery 
upon  social  relationships. 

There  is  no  better  place  for  such  a  study  than  this 
town  of  ours.  It  exists  for,  and  accepts  the  dictation 


THE     IRON     MAN  197 

of,  industry  highly  automatized.  In  brisk  times  more 
than  twenty  thousand  men  and  women  work  for  three 
corporations,  whose  plants  are  full  of  automatic  ma- 
chinery. When  these  marvelous  tools  are  busy,  the 
town  is  prosperous,  gains  population,  spends  lavishly, 
yet  saves  much  withal ;  when  the  tools  are  stilled,  the 
town  loses  population,  develops  poverty,  and  lives  on 
its  savings. 

In  1900  this  was  a  quiet  little  manufacturing  city  of 
13,000.  In  1904  it  produced  its  first  motor-car,  and 
growth  from  that  time  was  rapid  and  sustained,  drain- 
ing away  the  surplus  labor  of  near-by  farms  and  vil- 
lages. The  1910  census  showed  38,550.  In  the  next 
ten  years,  the  city  achieved  a  population  of  nearly 
100,000,  acquiring,  among  other  interesting  phe- 
nomena, a  Little  Poland,  a  Little  Hungary,  a  Little 
Serbia,  other  immigrant  colonies,  and  a  Cosmopolitan 
Club  financed  by  the  Chamber  of  Commerce.  We 
built  a  Polish  church  and  school,  two  Russian  churches, 
a  Czech  church,  and  presently  we  shall  have  a  Jewish 
synagogue.  During  the  war  we  imported  camps  of 
negroes  direct  from  the  Black  Belt.  All  these  non- 
natives,  about  75,000  in  the  twenty  years,  came  either 
to  tend  automatic  machines,  to  supply  the  economic 
and  domestic  wants  of  the  operatives,  or  to  cooperate 
in  a  scheme  of  production  in  which  the  automatic  tool 
was  the  decisive  factor. 

Of  course,  this  growth  induced  the  usual  and  to-be- 
expected  rise  in  rents  and  land-values.  We  built 
houses  as  fast  as  we  could  find  the  money;  but,  in 
spite  of  enormous  profits  to  constructors  and  in- 


198  THE     IRON     MAN 

vestors,  we  could  not  provide  housing  fast  enough  to 
satisfy  the  industrial  leaders.  In  1919-20  the  corpora- 
tion controlling  our  two  largest  plants  built  thousands 
of  homes.  As  a  strike  ensued,  the  builders  fell  back 
upon  the  principle  which  had  profited  them  in  auto- 
mobile manufacture,  substituting  for  skilled  labor, 
machinery  and  unskilled  labor. 

In  1920,  production  on  automatic  machines  here 
and  elsewhere  having  outrun  consumption,  the  wheels 
slowed  down  to  a  fraction  of  their  former  speed.  Im- 
mediately our  town  began  to  lose  population;  thus 
proving  that,  with  cities  as  with  plants,  quick  growth 
means  weak  roots.  Coincidentally  rural  districts  be- 
gan to  gain.  While  we  were  losing  15,000  out  of  our 
100,000,  a  village  eighteen  miles  away  added  20  per 
cent  to  its  1920  census  of  400.  Money  brought  these 
people  into  town,  and,  jobs  failing,  lack  of  money  took 
them  out  again  into  the  fields,  woods,  and  villages. 
Michigan  woods  were  full  last  winter  (1920)  of  men 
who,  the  year  before,  were  tending  automatic  ma- 
chines. What  back-to-the-land  propaganda  failed  to 
do  through  twenty  years,  economic  necessity  accom- 
plished in  six  months.  The  Pied  Piper  of  modern 
times  is  the  Iron  Man,  the  automatic  tool.  Its  stac- 
cato tune  lures  adults  from  their  homes  as  inevitably 
as  the  Piper's  tune  drew  the  mediaeval  children  of 
fable.  To  their  ruin?  Perhaps. 

Of  all  the  states,  Michigan  shows  the  greatest  per- 
centage of  urban  growth  from  1910  to  1920.  It  also 
reveals  the  greatest  growth  in  the  use  of  automatic 
tools.  This  is  because  our  state  is  the  automobile 


THE     IRON     MAN  199 

state.  An  interesting  study  of  the  parallel  develop- 
ment of  the  automatic  tool  and  the  automobile  may 
be  found  in  the  June  (1919)  number  of  the  Journal 
of  Political  Economy,  under  the  title,  "The  Amer- 
ican Automatic  Tool."  The  author,  Mr.  E.  F.  Lloyd, 
shows  that  the  automobile,  as  an  economic  want, 
burst  into  being  rather  than  grew.  It  was  a  new  means 
of  transportation,  not  the  development  of  an  older 
means.  Its  makers  faced  the  markets  with  open  minds, 
and  almost  empty  hands.  They  had  no  well-estab- 
lished shop-practice  to  consider,  little  or  no  machinery 
to  junk.  Their  margins  were  large  enough  to  ensure 
that  whatever  increased  production  would  return 
profits.  Moreover,  the  nature  of  their  business  re- 
quired large  outputs  of  identical  parts,  accurately 
machined,  standardized,  and  interchangeable.  Hence 
the  automobile  industry  is  to-day  the  most  highly 
automatized.  Hence  the  reactions  of  automatic  ma- 
chinery upon  human  nature  and  the  social  order  may 
be  observed  here  in  all  their  vigor. 

Those  machines  which  tend  to  replace  the  worker, 
or  reduce  his  function  to  a  minimum,  are  described  as 
automatic.  They  are  so  designed  that  the  worker  need 
not  know  the  vital  steps  which  the  mechanism  takes 
in  producing  the  desired  result.  The  dividing  line 
between  these  tools  and  those  that  merely  lengthen 
or  strengthen  the  arm  of  man  is  nowhere  definite  and 
precise,  but  examples  will  help  to  point  the  distinction. 

With  the  power  wool-clipper,  as  with  the  sheep- 
shears,  the  mind  of  the  operator  must  work  with  his 
muscle,  to  extract  from  use  the  increased  efficiency  of 


200  THE     IRON     MAN 

the  tool.  But  with  an  automatic  tool,  the  attendant 
is  required  only  to  feed  the  machine  and  relieve  it  of 
its  produce  from  time  to  time.  There  are  a  good  many 
semi-automatic  machines;  but  the  tendency  is  toward 
their  complete  automatization.  Each  year  sees  semi- 
automatic machines  develop  toward  automatic  per- 
fection ;  each  month  sees  the  scope  for  skill  in  industry 
lessened,  particularly  in  those  basic  industries  which 
concentrate  large  numbers  of  workers  in  given  centres, 
and  so  exercise  a  determining  influence  upon  social 
relations. 

Skill,  of  course,  is  still  vital;  but  the  need  for  skill 
has  passed  upward.  Machine-design,  shop-organiza- 
tion, routing  of  materials,  and  distribution  of  produce 
—  these  require  a  concentration  of  skill  and  technical 
knowledge  far  beyond  the  similar  requirements  of 
non-automatic  industry.  The  rank  and  file  need  use 
only  a  fraction  of  their  native  intelligence  and  manual 
dexterity,  while  the  skill-requirement,  which  formerly 
spread  more  or  less  over  the  whole  shop,  is  distilled 
into  a  relatively  small  group  of  engineers  and  execu- 
tives. 

This  shift  of  vital  function  from  the  man  to  the 
machine  is  the  key  to  many  problems.  It  affects  all 
departments  of  life.  We  have  seen  how  it  broke  down 
the  barrier  of  apprenticeship  which  had  sealed  fac- 
tories more  or  less  against  rural  labor  and  brought 
raw  farmboys  into  town,  leveling  farm  and  factory 
wages,  lifting  food-prices.  We  have  seen  the  power  of 
the  Iron  Man  to  pull  the  negro  north  and  the  peasants 
of  Europe  west.  And  we  have  seen  something,  but  not 


THE     IRON     MAN  201 

all  as  yet,  of  his  influence  in  shifting  women  from  the 
home  to  the  mill.  The  clear,  unmistakable  tendency 
of  automatic  machinery  is  to  level  labor,  both  as  to 
supply  and  wage. 

Certain  collateral  effects  are  equally  impressive. 
Many  automatic  machines  can  be  operated  as  well  by 
a  child  of  twelve  as  by  his  parents.  In  fact,  the  tender 
of  automatic  machines  reaches  his  or  her  highest 
economic  power  early  in  life,  when  nerves  are  stead- 
iest. The  strain  involved  in  nursing  automatic  ma- 
chinery is  a  repetition-strain,  complicated  by  clatter. 
The  operative  does  the  same  thing  over  and  over, 
amid  rhythmic  sounds,  in  an  atmosphere  frequently 
stale  with  oil  or  dust. 

Youth  stands  this  better  than  age,  because  youth 
reacts  more  quickly.  Whereas,  in  the  old  days, 
a  man  used  to  come  more  slowly  into  earning  power, 
reach  his  highest  pay  at  thirty-odd,  and  continue 
fully  competent  until  age  began  to  slow  him  down  at 
sixty-odd,  his  son  leaps  into  high  pay  as  a  hobblede- 
hoy, reaches  his  economic  apogee  short  of  twenty-five, 
and  from  thirty-five  to  forty-five  slides  swiftly  down- 
hill. He  is  a  better  earner  at  twenty  than  his  father 
was ;  but  the  chances  are  that  he  will  be  a  poorer  pro- 
vider at  fifty. 

I  prefer  not  to  be  too  dogmatic  on  this  point.  Auto- 
matic machinery  is  so  new,  having  been  in  common 
use  about  twenty  years  and  still  being  in  its  infancy, 
that  present  deductions  on  economic  life-expectancy 
are  founded  upon  too  few  instances  to  be  altogether 
conclusive.  Moreover,  the  swift  decline  of  earning 


202  THE     IRON     MAN 

power  in  middle  life  may  be  partly  due  to  causes  only 
indirectly  related  to  industry  —  poor  housing,  youth- 
ful excesses,  and  the  like.  However,  present  indications 
point  to  the  correctness  of  the  cycle  outlined  above. 

Now  the  difficulties  of  the  problem  presented  to 
educators  by  automatic  machinery  begin  to  emerge. 
The  majority  of  youths,  male  and  female,  no  longer 
need  to  be  taught  how  to  earn  their  living.  Three 
days  after  the  law  that  sets  limits  on  child-labor  leaves 
them  free  to  work  at  the  machines,  they  will  be  earn- 
ing big  money  —  practically  as  much  as  they  will 
ever  earn.  There  is  little  to  learn ;  the  mills  can  teach 
that  better  and  cheaper  than  the  schools. 

The  pockets  of  these  children  are  full  of  money  at 
an  age  when  their  fathers  earned  less  than  a  living 
wage  as  apprentices.  They  are  economically  inde- 
pendent of  home  and  social  control.  They  have  the 
eternal  belief  of  youth,  that  the  preceding  generation 
is  fossilized,  and  the  buying  power  to  act  upon  their 
belief.  They  are  foot-loose  to  go  wherever  automatic 
machines  are  turning.  They  can  buy  their  pleasures, 
and  they  do.  They  can  afford  to  flout  age  and  author- 
ity; they  do.  Their  very  active  minds  have  no  back- 
ground, and  feel  the  need  of  none.  They  have  no 
conception  of  the  cost  of  civilization;  no  standard  of 
reference  by  which  to  judge  social  and  political  ques- 
tions. They  have  not  even  lived  long  enough  to  learn 
the  simple  truth,  that  common  sense  and  wisdom 
spring  from  the  same  root.  With  far  greater  need  for 
early  thrift  than  their  elders,  because  their  effective 
economic  life  may  be  shorter,  they  spurn  the  homely 


THE     IRON     MAN  203 

virtue  of  economy.  They  buy  pleasures,  buy  com- 
panions, buy  " glad "  raiment;  they  try  —  desperately 
—  to  buy  happiness.  And  fail. 

Yet  they  are  splendid  raw  material  for  citizens.  Let 
a  great  cause  kindle  them,  and  they  rise  to  it  like 
knights  and  ladies  —  noblesse  oblige.  They  met  every 
war  need  more  than  halfway;  fought  and  fell;  sacri- 
ficed and  saved  —  during  the  emergency.  Their 
faults  are  those  of  youth,  plus  affluence. 

Here  is  the  explanation  of  our  youthful  delinquency. 
Our  "bad  men"  of  this  winter  are  mostly  minors. 
"My  court,"  said  a  Detroit  judge,  "is  the  scene  of  a 
procession  of  beardless  boys."  They  acquire  appe- 
tites, expensive  appetites;  pleasure  leads  into  bad 
company.  A  prank  gone  wrong,  an  unfortunate  slip, 
a  month  without  a  job  and  nothing  laid  by  —  and  we 
have  the  beginning  of  what  we  call  the  crime  wave. 

All  this,  of  course,  is  more  marked  in  brisk  times 
than  in  dull  times,  but  even  in  dull  times  youths  so 
employed  earn  as  much  as  older  men ;  and,  lacking 
the  domestic  responsibilities  of  the  latter,  are  able 
to  flourish  independently  of  their  parents  and  devote 
to  youthful  pleasures  a  buying  power  roughly  equal 
to  that  of  adults. 

Much  as  this  situation  complicates  the  educational 
problem,  the  school  system  somehow  must  be  adapted 
to  it.  Somehow  these  children  must  be  brought  up  to 
a  mental  and  moral  level  approximating  the  economic 
level  upon  which  they  set  foot  immediately  after  leav- 
ing school.  This  is  a  grim  task.  In  the  public  schools, 
certain  things  must  be  taught  before  the  age  of  six- 


2o4  THE     IRON     MAN 

teen,  which  now  are  taught  only  in  college,  and  to 
which  many  college  students  appear  to  be  immune. 
The  proposal  itself  would  be  revolutionary  if  it  did 
not  arise  from  a  new  set  of  industrial  conditions,  to 
which  society  is  accommodating  itself  clumsily,  but,  in 
the  main,  peaceably.  As  such,  the  change,  though 
startling,  is  clearly  evolutionary  —  and  inevitable. 

What  are  the  positive  educational  requirements  of 
the  machine  age?  To  clear  the  ground,  let  us  elim- 
inate the  non-essentials.  The  child  who  is  going  to  tend 
an  automatic  machine  does  not  need,  in  any  economic 
sense,  to  read  more  than  a  shop  poster  or  direction 
sheet.  If  he  can  sign  his  name  to  a  pay  check,  that  is 
enough.  If  he  is  willing  to  trust  the  shop  to  figure  out 
his  pay,  he  need  not  know  his  numbers.  For  the  time 
he  stands  beside  the  machine,  his  earning  capacity  is 
not  increased  by  anything  he  knows.  Knowledge  may 
be  useful  in  getting  him  away  from  the  machine,  but 
that  escape  is  going  to  be  more  difficult  as  automatiza- 
tion proceeds  toward  its  logical  conclusion.  Such 
knowledge  as  the  operative  comes  by  in  school  pos- 
sesses for  him  only  a  cultural  value.  It  does  not  help 
him  in  the  least  to  earn  his  living;  but  it  helps  him 
immensely  to  spend  his  leisure. 

For  these  children  —  these  prosperous,  precocious 
children  —  possess  leisure,  and  the  means  to  make  the 
worst  of  it.  They  work,  most  of  them  at  least,  no  more 
than  eight  hours  a  day.  Presently,  it  may  be  seven, 
even  six.  As  production  becomes  more  and  more 
automatic,  the  wants  of  men  can  be  supplied  with  less 
and  less  labor.  Consumption,  of  course,  may  expand 


THE     IRON     MAN  205 

enormously ;  yet  the  demand  for  goods  remains  ever  in 
stiff  competition  with  the  universal  demand  for  leis- 
ure. "  I  Ve  got  enough ;  let 's  go  fishing,"  was  a  state 
of  mind  so  common  in  1919  that  it  disturbed  factory 
schedules,  roused  employers,  and  set  tongues  wagging 
about  labor-profiteering. 

Employers  may  fight  the  tendency  toward  the 
shorter  working-day,  but  theirs  is  a  losing  fight.  For 
a  time,  in  our  town,  we  went  along,  producing  on  a 
five-hour  schedule  all  of  our  kind  of  automobiles  that 
the  restricted  market  would  absorb.  Every  day  was 
a  half-holiday  for  thousands.  More  recently  hours 
were  lengthened,  and  the  number  of  days  of  work  per 
week  decreased.  If  a  factory  operative  got  in  more 
than  three  days'  productive  work  in  the  week,  he 
was  lucky.  Saturday  has  been  a  workless  day  in 
one  of  our  great  plants  all  winter.  We  have  discov- 
ered that  with  picked  men,  heightened  morale,  and 
a  closer  synchronizing  of  all  the  elements  involved, 
production  per  man  can  be  greatly  increased,  even 
doubled .  I f  the  present  highly  effective  organizations 
are  slowly  enlarged,  thus  preserving  their  efficiency, 
it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  market,  under  normal 
conditions,  can  absorb  more  than  eight  hours'  pro- 
duce from  day  to  day. 

If  this  seems  to  contradict  previous  observations 
on  the  elimination  of  the  personal  element  through 
machine  use,  please  note  that  the  improvement  is  due 
largely,  if  not  altogether,  to  the  work  done  by  the 
engineers  and  executives  in  more  efficiently  routing 
materials  to  the  machines.  Under  boom  conditions, 


206  THE     IRON     MAN 

the  stream  of  supply  was  often  interrupted,   thus 
throwing  the  machines  out  of  production.    This  has 
been  largely  corrected;  also,  in  the  meantime,  the 
machines  have  been  tuned  up,  and  new  ones  added  in 
some  cases.   The  attendant  of  the  automatic  machine 
remains  just  where  he  was;  but  the  machine  has  the 
chance  to  do  more  and  better  work.    Of  course,  even 
in  a  highly  automatized  plant,  there  remain  a  good 
many  jobs  that  require  either  no  machinery  or  semi- 
automatic machines,  and  in  such  cases  the  recent 
weeding-out  of  the  ineffectives  does  produce  beneficial 
results.    If  the  market  will  not  absorb  the  products  of 
the  longer  working-day,  on  the  present  more  efficient 
per-man  per-hour  basis,  then  it  seems  apparent  that, 
viewing  the  country  as  a  whole,  industry  will  have  to 
adjust  itself  to  eight  hours  or  fewer,  probably  fewer. 
The  nation's  supply  of  automatic  tools  is  not  going  to 
be  decreased  simply  to  lengthen  the  working-day ;  on 
the  contrary,  competition  continually  forces  more  and 
more  of  such  tools  into  operation. 

A  shorter  working-day  manifestly  means  greater 
leisure  for  the  masses.  Whether  the  free  time  comes 
from  choice  or  necessity,  from  labor-bargains  or  lay- 
offs, that  free  time  is  none  the  less  leisure.  Now  it 
is  everlastingly  true  that  the  bulk  of  human  mischief 
is  done  in  spare  time.  There  is  precious  little  chance 
for  original  sin,  or  any  other  kind  of  sin,  to  work  it- 
self out  under  the  strict  regimen  of  a  modern  factory. 
While  human  beings  are  at  work,  they  are,  perforce, 
reasonably  decent.  The  employer  sees  to  it  that  the 
time  he  buys  is  not  wasted;  but  no  one  exercises  an 


THEIRONMAN  207 

equal  degree  of  control  and  supervision  over  a  man's 
unbought  time,  —  his  leisure,  —  unless  it  is  the  man 
himself. 

In  a  town  dominated  by  automatic  machinery, 
therefore,  the  educational  problem  is  to  train  youth 
for  the  right  use  of  leisure.  Why  waste  time  teaching 
city  children  how  to  work,  when  their  chief  need  is  to 
know  how  to  live? 

Precisely  here  is  the  point  of  my  argument.  Educa- 
tion for  leisure,  under  the  conditions  of  automatic 
production,  is  education  for  life.  The  attendant  of 
automatic  tools  does  not  live  while  he  is  on  the  job; 
he  exists,  against  the  time  when  he  can  begin  to  live, 
which  is  when  he  leaves  the  shop.  His  task  does  not 
call  for  a  fraction  of  his  full  powers  as  a  sentient  being, 
or  monopolize  his  interest.  If  he  could  buy  the  same 
amount  of  well-financed  leisure  as  easily  in  any  other 
way,  he  would  shift  jobs  to-morrow.  It  is  impossible 
for  him  to  grow  mentally  through  his  work.  So  he 
comes  to  his  post  as  a  slave  to  the  galley,  and  leaves 
it  with  the  gladness  of  a  convict  escaping  prison. 
Psychologists  say  that  a  large  part  of  industrial  unrest 
is  due  to  the  inhibition  which  automatic  tools  place 
upon  the  expression  of  personality  through  labor.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  the  fact  is,  that  the  hours  given  to 
tending  automatic  machines  are  given  to  buy  leisure; 
and  in  that  leisure  the  operative  lives.  He  lives  in  his 
sports,  at  the  movies,  at  the  prize-fights,  at  the  blind 
pig,  as  well  as  at  the  theatre,  the  lecture,  the  library, 
in  the  park,  and  on  the  front  porch  of  his  inamorata. 

In  general,  it  has  ever  been  true  that  leisure  is  the 


208  THEIRONMAN 

cream  of  life.  We  have  tried  desperately  to  build  up 
an  immunity  to  leisure,  with  our  dull  gospel  of  work 
for  work's  sake.  There  is  a  glory  in  creative  work;  but 
even  that  becomes  pain  and  weariness  if  we  are  kept 
too  long  at  it.  All  labor  produces,  sooner  or  later, 
weariness  and  pain,  nature's  signal  to  quit  and  go 
a-playing.  When  does  that  most  stolid  of  men,  the 
peasant,  live  most  fully  —  when  he  plods  the  endless 
furrow,  or  when,  at  evening,  he  sings  his  songs,  dances, 
prays,  and  courts  his  maiden?  When  did  the  skilled 
mechanic  of  another  day  feel  his  manhood  soar  highest 
above  clod  and  worm  —  when  he  was  chasing  a  screw 
with  a  cold  chisel,  or  when  he  was  taking  the  air  in  his 
garden,  or,  perchance,  hobnobbing  with  his  mates  in 
the  corner  saloon?  Is  the  tireless  business  man  better 
company  when  he  is  chasing  a  golf-ball  or  when  he  is 
chasing  a  profit?  Is  the  banker  best  satisfied  with  him- 
self when  he  is  figuring  interest  or  when  he  is  hip-deep 
in  the  stream,  figuring  trout?  I  think  that  men  of  the 
better  sort  reach  their  furthest  north  in  life,  not  in 
the  hours  they  pay  for  life,  but  in  the  hours  they  spend 
in  living.  Certain  am  I  that  none  but  an  imbecile 
could  find  much  delight  in  sharing  the  daily  toil  of  our 
mill-workers,  so  mechanized  has  it  become.  Conse- 
quently, education  for  leisure  is  precisely  education 
for  life;  and  education  for  life  comes  down,  squarely 
down,  to  education  for  culture. 

To  apply  the  early  Victorian  ideal  of  education  to  a 
machine  age,  to  call  upon  Matthew  Arnold  to  pre- 
scribe for  a  flurried  and  worried  democracy,  may  seem 
absurd.  But  that  is  what  the  situation  needs;  and  the 


THEIRONMAN  209 

necessary  is  never  absurd.  That  cultural  ideal  was  to 
fit  for  leisure  those  who  had  leisure  —  a  small  minor- 
ity. With  certain  reservations  in  the  interests  of 
truth,  it  may  be  said  to  have  produced  a  few  first-rate 
minds  and  a  very  considerable  number  of  gentlemen 
and  gentlewomen.  Now,  because  leisure  has  broadened 
out  to  include  the  majority,  we  must  cultivate  gentle- 
men and  gentlewomen  en  masse.  What  was  once  a 
privilege  for  an  arrogant  aristocracy  has  become  a 
necessity  for  an  arrogant  democracy.  Unless  our 
American  gentlemen  and  gentlewomen  appear  in  due 
time  and  in  sufficient  numbers,  civilization  will  be 
wrecked  by  machine-made  barbarians,  unable  — 
though  their  machines  compass  the  globe  —  to  replace 
what  they  have  destroyed. 

What  is  the  first  requirement  for  the  right  use  of 
leisure?  Self-restraint.  Leisure  is  liberty  from  an  ex- 
acting, definite  control  —  that  of  the  boss.  In  leisure  a 
man  is  subject  only  to  the  state.  When  the  worker 
leaves  the  shop,  he  passes  from  a  positive  control  to  a 
negative  control.  Inside,  he  is  required  to  do  certain 
things;  failure  to  do  them  results  in  sure  discovery. 
Outside  he  is  required  not  to  do  certain  things;  al- 
though ,  if  he  does  them,  no  penalty  may  follow.  Thus 
we  see  that  it  is  immensely  more  difficult  to  train  hu- 
man beings  for  life  and  leisure  than  for  toil ;  and  that  in 
Americaonly  oddand  unusual  persons  get  very  much  out 
of  leisure.  About  all  that  a  retired  business  man  feels 
equal  to  is  golf  and  musical  comedy.  The  workers  offer 
more  encouragement  —  Brashear  and  Henry  George 
showed  what  laboring  men  could  do  in  spare  time. 


210  THEIRONMAN 

Need  for  self-restraint  increases  in  direct  proportion 
to  leisure  and  affluence.  Temptations  to  break  the 
law  beat  upon  the  impecunious  idle ;  but  temptations 
of  another  sort,  scarcely  less  subversive  to  character, 
beset  the  idle  youth  with  money  in  his  pocket.  I  am  sure 
that  eight  dollars  a  day  at  eighteen  —  and  some  of 
our  lads  earned  much  more  than  that  —  would  have 
corrupted  me  beyond  repair.  The  wonder  is,  not 
that  some  of  these  highly  paid  striplings  go  wrong, 
but  that  all  do  not  do  so,  considering  the  oppor- 
tunity offered  them  by  their  cynical  and  predacious 
predecessors.  More  even  than  wild  oats,  I  am  sure 
that  such  buying  power  early  in  life  would  have  in- 
sulated me  against  right  relationship  with  the  world 
of  ideas  and  ideals,  past,  present,  and  future,  by  blast- 
ing nascent  inquiry  and  speculation. 

The  establishing  of  this  relationship  in  youth  is,  I 
take  it,  the  end  of  all  true  and  worth-while  education, 
involving  as  it  does  the  subjugating  of  the  assertive, 
unbaked  Ego  to  the  social  well-being,  as  manifested 
in  the  legal,  moral,  and  ethical  codes  prevalent  in  one's 
environment,  and  enforced,  more  or  less,  by  the  power 
with  which  common  consent  invests  political  institu- 
tions. Respect  for  authority,  even  that  qualified  as- 
sent involved  in  the  pragmatic  view  of  established 
institutions,  has  extreme  difficulty  in  getting  a  root- 
hold  in  a  generation  whose  youth  is  economically  self- 
sufficient. 

It  follows  that  knowledge,  as  the  chief  restraining 
influence  in  the  youthful  mind,  is  the  substitute  that 
education  must  establish  in  place  of  the  set  of  controls 


THE     IRON     MAN  211 

which  formerly  resulted  from  the  young  man's  pov- 
erty, or  fear  of  poverty.  Remembering  that  the  rising 
generation  reaches  its  highest  economic  utility  early  in 
life,  and  that  it  soon,  relatively  speaking,  reaches  the 
economic  status  of  old  age,  I  think  we  must  agree  that, 
unless  youth  is  taught  thrift,  pauperism  will  lengthen 
and  strengthen  from  this  point  in  time.  A  grievous 
outlook,  to  be  forestalled  at  any  cost. 

There  is  need,  therefore,  to  drill  thrift  into  children; 
let  the  experts  busy  themselves  on  methods.  The 
whole  field  of  economics  must  be  opened  earlier,  and 
charted  more  simply.  Is  it  not  odd,  in  a  nation  that 
bows  down  to  economic  fact,  to  find  that  the  teaching 
of  economic  theory  is  almost  wholly  a  college  mo- 
nopoly? It  ought  to  be  possible  to  begin  the  teaching  of 
economics  in  the  kindergarten,  and  to  bring  the  pupil 
along  so  that,  before  he  becomes  a  part  of  the  eco- 
nomic machine  that  supplies  human  wants,  he  may 
understand  at  least  its  delicate  nature.  Suppose  a 
child  of  five  were  set  to  moving  by  hand  a  given  num- 
ber of  blocks,  from  this  space  to  that  —  an  hour's  work. 
Then  suppose  the  child  were  given  a  basket  to  ease 
the  job  —  time,  ten  minutes.  Then,  suppose  further 
that  an  intelligent  teacher  explained  that  the  basket 
wascapital,  the  result  of  previous  thrift,  of  labor  in  past 
time.  That  lesson  would  stick.  Somehow  to  get  this, 
and  other  fundamentals,  into  the  mind  when  it  is 
plastic,  is  the  supreme  educational  task  of  the  future. 

So  with  the  idea  of  law.  My  children  know,  among 
other  surprising  things,  the  chief  products  of  every 
state  in  the  Union ;  but  they  have  no  conception  of  the 


212  THE     IRON     MAN 

legal  system  which  enforces  equity  and  fair  play  in  the 
exchange  of  those  products.  It  seems  the  simplest 
thing  in  the  world  to  teach  them  that  laws  exist  to 
protect  the  weak  from  the  strong,  the  just  from  the 
unjust,  the  person  of  good  intent  from  the  swindler. 
Once  they  had  mastered  that  idea,  they  might  see  the 
policeman  as  a  friend  rather  than  as  an  enemy,  and 
our  economic- juridical  system  as  something  to  be  pro- 
tected instead  of  destroyed.  A  generation  so  reared 
might  insist  upon  the  law  doing  its  primal  duty;  but 
it  would  be  evolutionary,  not  revolutionary,  in  its 
demands. 

But  self-restraint  is  not,  of  course,  all  that  a  man 
needs  in  order  to  make  something  out  of  leisure.    A 
man  may  be  ever  so  self-restrained,  and  yet  be  des- 
perately bored  at  the  prospect  of  spending  an  hour 
in  his  own  company.  Self-restraint  is  merely  the  brake 
upon  the  ego-motor;  it  will  keep  the  individual  from 
running  amok  in  society,  but  it  will  not  start  any- 
thing.   Its  virtue  is  negative.    What  the  ego-motor 
needs  in  leisure  is  fuel,  something  upon  which  it  can 
travel,  progress,  journey  into  new  realms  of  thought. 
The  best  fuel  for  the  purpose  is  compounded  of  inter- 
est in  the  present,  understanding  of  the  past,  and 
sympathy  with  the  future.    History,  literature,  sci- 
ence, art,  music  —  all  these  give  to  life  meaning,  and 
to  leisure,  inspiration ;  a  reasonable  concern  in  all  that 
man  has  done,  is  doing,  or  is  about  to  do  upon  this 
planet  —  with  such  equipment  any  fool   could    use 
leisure  aright.    To  sow  that  seed  is  the  first  duty  of 
educators,  now  as  always,  now  more  than  ever. 


THE     IRON     MAN  213 

So  much  for  the  background.  But  backgrounds  are 
always  hazy ;  let  us  concentrate.  Since  work  is  coming 
to  be  no  longer  a  primary  interest  for  the  child  of  the 
masses  in  civilized  lands,  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  to 
provide,  in  so  far  as  they  can  be  provided,  other  pri- 
mary interests  through  which  the  individual  can  justify 
his  existence,  interests  which,  rising  out  of,  and  sus- 
tained by,  his  background,  shall  flourish  like  the  green 
bay  tree  all  the  days  of  his  life.  Every  man,  whether 
he  works  a  turret  lathe  or  a  comptometer,  needs  a 
hobby  to  busy  himself  with,  in  this  age  of  growing 
leisure.  We  hear  less  of  vocational  training  than  we 
did  —  for  good  reason,  since  its  utility  is  passing. 
Presently  we  shall  hear  more  of  avocational  training, 
which  shall  give  every  youth  destined  for  the  mill  or 
office  a  hobby  for  the  centre  of  his  garden  of  leisure. 

In  a  machine  age  the  applied  sciences  are  para- 
mount. Let  them  remain  so.  There  are  important 
posts  on  the  peaks  of  industry  which  must  be  filled. 
Let  us  see  to  it  that  every  mind  fit  to  join  the  direc- 
torate of  industry  gets  its  educational  opportunity. 
Machinery  is  undeniably  one  of  the  prime  intellectual 
interests  of  the  American  masses;  in  leisure  an  in- 
formed generation  would  continue  inventing,  perhaps 
invent  faster  than  ever.  Therefore  let  us  give  youth 
all  it  can  stomach  of  the  sciences,  deepened  and 
broadened  to  the  uttermost.  But  by  no  means  should 
we  submit  to  the  specialist's  obsession,  that,  with  the 
key  to  universal  knowledge  in  his  hand,  he  travels 
down  a  walled  alley,  shut  off  from  the  humanities, 
from  philosophy,  from  religion,  from  life. 


2i4  THEIRONMAN 

I  am  not  competent  to  provide  the  synthesis  for  this 
analysis,  to  describe  the  educational  reforms  which  are 
necessary,  and  which,  I  am  sure,  are  on  the  way.  That 
is  a  task  for  many  and  mature  minds.  But  certain 
key-points  emerge  out  of  the  haze.  We  must,  I  think, 
insist  upon  ten  years'  schooling  for  every  child,  as  an 
irreducible  minimum,  before  plunging  into  the  whirl 
of  automatic  production.  There  should  be  four  school 
terms  instead  of  two,  with  a  brief  holiday  between; 
the  long  summer  vacation  is  an  anachronism  in  a  fac- 
tory town.  So  also  is  the  Saturday  holiday  —  six 
days  a  week  in  school  henceforth.  There  is  so  much 
to  be  taught,  and  there  are  so  few  years  to  teach  it 
in,  that  youth  must  hurry.  At  the  same  time,  school 
should  be  so  much  more  interesting,  that  the  charge 
of  drudgery  could  not  hold. 

Then,  too,  there  must  be  more  teachers,  and  smaller 
classes;  better  equipment,  more  money  spent  all 
round.  Finally,  there  should  be  a  complete  system  of 
continuation  schools,  wherein  those  who  desire  to  use 
their  labor-bought  leisure  by  securing  further  instruc- 
tion, could  be  accommodated  on  their  own  time.  All 
graduates  presumably  will  have  been  so  far  inoculated 
with  the  intellectual  virus  that  they  will  go  on  im- 
proving their  minds  in  leisure  to  some  extent,  thus 
demonstrating  on  a  wide  scale  that  education  is  not  a 
matter  of  youth,  but  of  life.  With  such  a  start,  the 
many  will  read,  discuss,  and  enjoy  the  noblest  works 
of  man.  And  some  among  them,  have  no  fear,  will 
create  as  well  as  recreate. 

But  the  programme,  after  all,  may  be  left  safely  to 


THE     IRON     MAN  215 

the  specialists,  now  that  the  problem  is  stated  for 
their  attention.  They  may  have  been  a  bit  tardy  in 
seeing  how  the  Iron  Man  is  frustrating  their  efforts, 
and  why;  but  that  is  because  they  have  been  concen- 
trating upon  an  even  more  wonderful  mechanism  — 
the  human  mind.  Let  them  quarrel,  as  no  doubt  they 
will,  over  the  details  of  the  programme;  but  they  can 
be  trusted  to  accept  the  statement,  —  once  they 
square  the  facts  by  the  rule  of  reason,  —  that  the  wel- 
fare of  our  people  and  the  preservation  of  our  insti- 
tutions depend  upon  our  educating  youth  to  use  rea- 
sonably and  gloriously  the  growing  leisure  which  the 
common  use  of  automatic  machinery  has  in  store  for 
humanity. 


THREE  innovations  in  a  single  notable  year  so 
affected  the  development  of  modern  Western 
civilization,  that  the  new  world  may  be  considered  as 
born  in  1776,  when  Adam  Smith  published  his  "In- 
quiry into  the  Wealth  of  Nations,"  the  American 
colonies  revolted  from  Great  Britain,  and  Wilkinson 
made  Watt's  steam-engine  a  commercial  success  by 
boring  cylinders  capable  of  holding  compression. 

The  effects  of  the  first  two  are  tritely  acknowledged. 
Smith's  logic  broke  down  the  so-called  mercantile 
system  of  state  control,  freed  trade  from  many  of  its 
political  inhibitions  and  opened  the  door  to  individ- 
ualism and  commercial  opportunity.  Here,  on  our 
eastern  seaboard,  the  search  for  freedom,  renewed 
under  favoring  circumstances  in  a  rich  environment, 
resulted  in  a  representative  government  amenable  to 
democratic  ideals  —  a  consummation  so  appealing  to 
men,  that  the  political  trend  thereafter  in  all  en- 
lightened lands  has  been  away  from  personal  power 
and  toward  constitutionalism,  away  from  feudalism 
and  toward  democracy. 

Not  the  least  important  of  those  three  great  ad- 
ventures was  that  in  tool-making.  Until  Wilkinson 
perfected  his  boring  machine  so  that  cylinders  could 
be  produced  true  "to  the  thickness  of  a  thin  sheet  of 
paper,"  Watt's  engine  remained  merely  an  interesting 
and  ineffective  model.  But  no  sooner  could  steam- 
engines  be  produced  in  numbers,  than  Watt's  con- 


THE     IRON     MAN  217 

tribution  became  a  mighty  force,  not  only  in  fabricat- 
ing and  transporting  goods,  but  also  in  fabricating  and 
transporting  civilization.  Hard,  indeed,  to  find  a  man 
or  institution  on  this  planet  not  in  some  way  affected, 
for  better  or  worse,  by  the  steam-engine  and  the 
industrial  civilization  built  on  that  base.  Even  the 
Sacred  Lama  of  Tibet  has  seen  an  Englishman,  a 
camera,  a  repeating  rifle,  and  a  dotted  line  upon  which 
to  sign  away  some  of  his  sovereign  powers  to  inheritors 
of  the  steam-engine.  The  applied  science  of  Watt  and 
Wilkinson  has  been  as  revolutionary  in  its  effects  as 
the  politics  of  Jefferson  and  the  economics  of  Adam 
Smith. 

No  event  of  first-rate  importance  since  1776  can  be 
explained  satisfactorily  without  reference  to  the  three 
forces  then  released.  The  trio  have  pulled  in  harness, 
and  while  one  might  at  some  point  seem  to  be  carrying 
most  of  the  load  at  any  given  time,  the  fact  is,  that  all 
three  were  in  the  news  every  day,  though  often  un- 
recognized. To  discern  where  the  paramount  influence 
of  one  ends  and  that  of  another  begins  calls  for  more 
application  than  is  worth  while,  since  the  workings  of 
each  have  been  qualified  by  the  others,  and  the  three 
together  propel  modern  Western  civilization. 

These  three  —  politics,  economics,  and  science,  in 
their  modern  manifestations  as  democracy,  competi- 
tion, and  the  harnessing  of  natural  forces  through 
mechanics  and  chemistry  —  have  brought  vast  boons 
and  vast  sorrows.  They  have  given  us  tubes  under 
London  and  trenches  in  Flanders,  the  ocean  liner  and 
the  submarine,  motor-cars  and  depth-bombs,  laugh- 


218  THE     IRON     MAN 

ing  gas  and  poison  gas.  They  have  enriched  life  abund- 
antly and  destroyed  it  ruthlessly,  letting  poor  folks 
have  luxuries  that  kings  could  not  enjoy  of  old,  doub- 
ling the  population  of  the  earth  in  four  generations, 
and  killing,  maiming,  and  starving  some  40,000,000 
in  four  years.  They  have  given  us  means  to  more 
material  prosperity  than  our  higher  natures  can  as- 
similate, lifting  the  standard  of  living  without  lifting 
equally  the  standard  of  conduct.  The  soul  of  man 
wanders  dismally  among  his  marvelous  machines,  try- 
ing to  salvage  the  tattered  bits  of  his  ideals,  and  piece 
them  together  into  chains  strong  enough  to  bind  again 
the  greedy  beast  he  knows  his  lower  self  to  be.  Still 
searching!  Thank  God  for  that! 

This  is  a  tragic  time.  With  small  heart  for  the  task, 
we  are  mopping  up  after  a  debacle.  We  take  our  wages 
grudgingly.  Even  the  least  of  us  seems  to  be  aware 
that  we  shall  fail  if  no  vision  comes  to  us;  even  the 
hardest  pressed  knows  that  cash  in  hand,  be  it  large 
or  small,  is  not  enough  to  nerve  the  soul  of  man  for 
victory  over  himself.  Having  won  a  victory  over  Na- 
ture, and  turned  the  spoils  of  that  victory  against 
himself  in  his  madness,  Man  now  contends  for  victory 
over  himself.  If  he  fails,  his  civilization  must  perish 
in  a  morass  of  materialism,  where  men  contend  for 
wealth  and  power  as  swine  at  the  trough.  In  that 
case,  we  shall  have  created  our  own  barbarians,  and 
our  spectacular  civilization  will  deserve  engulfment 
in  another  Dark  Age. 

Each  golden  age  in  history  has  had  its  denouement 
in  which  fair  promises  come  to  wreck  upon  the  points 


THE     IRON     MAN  219 

of  unseen  rocks  whose  bases  are  primordial  human 
traits.  There  is  that  in  human  nature  which  checks 
our  species  short  of  realizing  the  dreams  of  its  noblest 
sons.  In  part,  the  reason  is  economic;  alas,  we  must 
eat  and  be  clothed,  and  contend  for  the  privilege  of 
living.  And  yet  these  difficulties  are  not  insuperable, 
considering  the  enormous  productivity  of  our  modern 
tools  and  processes.  Primarily  the  failure  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  each  generation  must  be  schooled  anew  in 
restraint,  while  the  instincts,  and  likewise  the  tools 
and  processes  that  lend  themselves  so  readily  to  the 
gratification  of  those  instincts,  are  inherited  intact 
and  vigorous.  The  apparent  weakening  of  the  religious, 
moral,  and  ethical  controls  since  the  Industrial  Revo- 
lution began  may  be  relative  rather  than  actual.  Those 
controls  may  be  stronger  than  they  were,  and  yet,  so 
much  more  intense  are  the  material  forces  against 
which  they  must  contend,  the  controls  seem  relatively 
too  weak  to  hold. 

If  1776  be  considered  the  beginning  of  an  epoch  in 
which  politics,  economics,  and  science  increased  their 
influence  steadily,  and  at  a  constantly  accelerated 
pace,  over  human  affairs,  then  1918  maybe  considered 
a  halfway  point  in  the  great  historic  cycle.  Not 
merely  the  other  side  of  a  circle,  because  history  is  a 
whorl;  the  figure,  if  you  please,  is  one  in  solids,  and 
the  plane  of  the  beginning  impossible  to  regain.  But, 
at  least,  the  trend  henceforth,  for  many  years  to  come, 
must  be  back  toward  the  beginnings.  One  would  be 
blind,  indeed,  to  miss  the  accumulating  evidence  that 
the  human  spirit,  weary  of  what  men  have  done  —  for 


220  THE    IRON    MAN 

the  most  part  unwittingly  —  by  and  through  politics, 
economics,  and  science,  looks  back  despairingly  from 
new  to  old.  The  Prodigal,  reeking  of  the  fleshpots, 
turns  toward  home. 

After  much  experience  with  democracy,  we  are 
forced  to  qualify  democracy.  The  "free  and  equal" 
clause  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  a  dead 
issue,  no  longer  valid  among  us  either  practically  or 
theoretically.  We  are  forced  to  recognize  inequality 
as  inherent  in  human  nature,  and  accept  class-dis- 
tinctions as  having  psychologic  as  well  as  economic 
bases.  Opportunity  to  climb  from  one  class  to  another 
or  to  sink  from  one  class  to  another,  is  as  close  an 
approach  as  this  generation  can  honestly  make  to 
professions  of  equality.  No  matter  how  thoroughly  the 
progress  of  automatic  machinery  levels  wages,  or  how 
incomes  are  leveled  by  super-taxes,  ability  and  in- 
tellect will  herd  together  and  lead.  We  perceive  that 
the  hope  of  the  world  lies  in  the  exalted  leadership  of 
an  aristocracy  recruited  from  all  classes  of  society  on 
the  basis  of  merit ;  and  that,  while  the  common  sense 
of  the  masses  may  be  trusted  in  fundamental  decisions, 
the  complications  of  civilization  are  such  as  to  make 
the  mass-verdict  of  value  only  on  simple  issues  where 
ample  time  is  available.  So  far  have  the  theories  of 
democracy  been  qualified  by  the  wisdom  of  experience. 

Likewise,  the  evolution  of  our  times  proceeds  re- 
lentlessly, despite  terrific  opposition,  toward  a  revival 
of  mercantilism  through  state  control  of  business. 
11  Do  as  you  please  as  long  as  you  pay  your  taxes"  is 
as  dead  as  that  ultimate  of  laissez-faire  economy  — 


THEIRONMAN  221 

free  trade.  Individualism  took  too  large  a  dose  of  its 
own  medicine,  and  fades  day  by  day.  The  tradition  of 
personal  independence  dies  hard ;  yet  die  it  must  when 
confronted  with  the  reality  of  personal  interdepend- 
ence. We  rely  upon  the  state  and  the  community 
to  preserve  the  amenities  of  social  life  against  the 
ultimate  effects  of  economic  pressure.  Coalescence  of 
individuals  into  groups  has  progressed  so  far  that 
cooperation  is  essential  to  the  civilization  we  know.  In 
the  extension  of  the  cooperative  principle  resides  our 
best  hope  of  industrial  peace,  and  yet  confidence 
enough  to  make  cooperation  work  is  lacking  and  must 
be  rebuilt.  Our  world  is  full  of  social  controls  unknown 
to  our  forefathers ;  but  an  older  world  than  theirs  knew 
something  like  them  in  the  far-away  days  when  in- 
dividual initiative  was  hampered  by  the  state  at  many 
points,  and  the  church,  as  a  sub-government,  touched 
all  lives. 

The  analogy  of  "return"  may  be  pushed  even 
further.  Our  corporate  groupings  take  on  more  and 
more  the  look  of  feudal  groupings.  Insecurity  in  toil 
and  station  has  made  good  its  curses  as  well  as  its 
blessings.  Labor  searches  for  security  as  well  as  for 
reward;  and  the  renewal  of  labor's  confidence  in  the 
capitalist  system  seems  likely  to  await  the  success  of 
efforts  being  put  forth  to  harmonize  security  with 
freedom  —  a  task  desperately  difficult,  perhaps  in- 
superable. 

In  all  these  respects,  and  many  others,  a  disillu- 
sioned world  seems  to  be  retracing  its  steps  toward  a 
point  where  life  was  simpler  and  more  easily  reduced 


222  THE     IRON     MAN 

to  rule.  It  is  a  weary  round,  because  we  moderns,  in  the 
meantime,    have    come    by   so    much    disconcerting 
knowledge  and  have  had  so  little  time  to  reduce  it  to 
comprehension.    Mountains  of  facts  weigh  us  down, 
and  we  have  no  aeons  of  time  at  our  disposal,  to  let 
natural  forces  work  these  facts  into  strata  of  gold  and 
dross,  easily  recognizable  for  what  they  are  worth. 
Many  things  appear  important  to  us  which  probably 
are  not  important  at  all,  but  seem  so  because  we  have 
lost  our  old  standards  of  selection  and  appraisal,  and 
lack  new  ones  whose  validity  is  commonly  accepted. 
In  the  press,  for  instance,  enough  energy  and  material 
is  wasted  girding  at  women's  clothes  to  go  some  little 
distance  toward  implanting  economic  sense  and  social 
ideals  in  the  minds  of  the  people.   A  noisy  evangelist, 
by  circus  methods,  stirs  thousands  of  weak  minds  to 
acknowledge  a  Master  they  forget  next  month.    A 
captain  of  industry  is  advertised  into  mythical  hero- 
ship  by  an  energetic  press-agent,  and  the  country 
thinks  it  has  discovered  someone  worth  while.   These 
are  vain  things;  fortunately  time  will  blot  them  out, 
and  history  contain  no  record  of  them,  except  perhaps 
in  satire.   Nevertheless,  they  keep  us  from  sane  judg- 
ments.   Our  minds  are  open  channels,  through  which 
ideas  rush  without  finding  lodgment  or  stiffening  into 
convictions. 

Difficult,  too,  to  keep  the  plane  of  return  an  ascend- 
ing plane.  How  much  easier  it  is  to  let  industry  de- 
grade the  masses,  than  to  give  them  a  leg  up  through 
cooperation,  and  a  hand  up  through  cultural  educa- 
tion. Easier  to  accept  the  moral  code  of  a  given  mo- 


THE     IRON     MAN  223 

ment  as  sacrosanct,  and  strive  for  a  lifeless  morality 
through  law,  than  to  examine  that  code,  bring  it  down 
to  date,  and  educe  goodness  through  suasion.  Simpler 
also,  to  accept  cold  formalism  in  religion,  than  to  seek 
for  the  spirit  behind  the  forms,  or  to  strive  for  a  new 
definition  of  the  Deity  acceptable  to  generations 
steeped  in  Darwinism.  Why  bother  with  trying  to 
bargain  ourselves  into  a  modus  vivendi  which  shall 
compass  both  social  welfare  and  individual  growth, 
when  we  can  have  the  whole  dreary  round  soon  over 
by  rushing  pell-mell  into  state  socialism  and  risking 
the  consequences?  Now,  as  ever  in  such  heartaches, 
men  are  sorely  tempted  to  try  short  cuts.  The  highway 
following  the  folds  of  nature  is  long  and  flinty,  and  our 
feet  are  bleeding.  Yet  short  cuts,  now  as  ever,  end  in 
quicksand. 

If  I  knew  of  other  controls  than  religion,  morality, 
and  ethics,  for  the  ills  of  materialism  that  beset  the 
workaday  world,  the  temptation  to  present  them  in 
this  conclusion  would  be  too  great  to  withstand.  I 
have  made  bold  to  point  out,  with  appropriate  reser- 
vations, certain  sedatives ;  but  I  repeat  that  there  is  no 
panacea  short  of  revising  our  whole  attitude  of  life 
toward  wealth  production  and  distribution.  That,  I 
am  satisfied,  is  impossible:  the  instincts  toward  pos- 
session and  dominance  are  too  strong.  The  best  we 
can  do  is  to  strengthen  where  faint,  and  renew  where 
absent,  those  ancient  religious  controls  which  brace 
men  for  duty,  justice,  and  mercy. 

No  one  knows  better  than  I  the  insufficiency  of 
saying,  at  this  pass,  "Morals"  to  the  mass,  "Ethics" 


224  THEIRONMAN 

to  the  class,  and  "Religion"  to  all  and  sundry,  mean- 
while pushing  briskly  by  on  the  other  side  of  the  road. 
Morals,  we  have  been  told  too  often,  are  matters  of 
convenience  and  custom,  latitude  and  longitude. 
Ethics,  unless  reduced  to  code,  are  too  hazy  for  guid- 
ance, and,  when  codified,  are  soon  outworn  in  this 
changing  scene.  Both  morals  and  ethics  may  be  at- 
tainted as  born  of  expediency,  except  where  they 
spring  unbidden  to  the  surface  in  a  character  fertilized 
by  religion. 

A  self-made  banker  put  the  case  neatly :  ' '  Ethics ! ' ' 
he  said  brusquely;  "  I  know  how  to  spell  the  word;  no 
more.  Yet  I  am  reputed  an  ethical  banker,  in  a  day 
when  opportunities  to  make  tainted  money  safely  in 
my  business  are  many.  What  keeps  me  from  taking 
them?  No  fine-spun  ethical  notions,  I  assure  you. 
Simply  old-fashioned  religion,  learned  in  an  old-fash- 
ioned home." 

One  heard  in  the  boom  days  much  talk  of  service 
and  ethics,  and  many  protestations  of  business  morals, 
at  luncheon  clubs  and  the  like ;  but  these  did  not  hin- 
der business  men  from  canceling  contracts  right  and 
left  when  prices  were  fluctuating  rapidly,  and  thus 
contributing  to  a  destruction  of  confidence  which  is 
certain  to  afflict  the  trading  and  working  world  for 
years  to  come.  Even  business  honor,  the  ethics  of 
counting-room  and  market-place,  needs  a  firmer  base 
than  expediency.  In  the  most  materialistic  concerns 
of  life,  practical  men  have  been  surprised  to  discover 
that  the  spirit  animating  the  disposition  of  resources 
is  of  prime  importance.  Bricks,  we  are  relearning  to 


THEIRONMAN  225 

our  sorrow,  do  not  make  a  wall  unless  the  bond  be- 
tween them  holds  fast  against  ill  winds. 

We  moderns  suffocate  under  an  avalanche  of  facts; 
our  distress  is  due,  not  to  the  facts,  but  to  our  diffi- 
culty in  discovering  their  relationships,  and  reducing 
them  to  comprehensible  order.  Our  age,  more  than 
any  other,  is  oppressed  by  a  necessity  to  reckon  with 
relations  between  things  and  ideas;  we  understand 
with  growing  clearness  that  in  life  all  is  intertwined. 
That  which  gives  the  infinite  concerns  and  phenomena 
of  life  meaning  is  the  bond  holding  them  together. 
Civilization  is  a  synthetic  process,  a  truth  which  those 
who  have  been  trying  to  save  it  by  analysis  and  spe- 
cialized thought  do  not  seem  in  the  least  to  appreciate. 

The  most  durable  bond  that  Man  has  yet  succeeded 
in  discovering  is  belief  in  God.  The  fact  that  one  can 
write  indefinitely  long  of  industry  and  make  no  men- 
tion of  God  may  be  at  the  root  of  more  of  our  indus- 
trial and  social  troubles  than  we  imagine.  Adam  Smith 
saw  no  future  for  the  corporation  except  in  a  few  lines 
easily  routinized,  such  as  life-insurance.  Little  did  he 
foresee  that  inventions  would  so  increase  the  routin- 
izing  apparatus  available  for  use  by  compelling  per- 
sonalities, that  the  corporation  would  become  in  our 
day  the  established  form  under  which  business  pro- 
ceeds. Equally,  we  give  no  sign  of  comprehending 
that  human  beings  are  routinized  along  with  business. 
Something  infinitely  precious  evaporates  from  the 
soul  of  man  in  the  desert  of  routine.  The  idea  of  God 
has  less  and  less  chance  to  express  itself  in  the  work- 
life  of  the  common  man,  as  chance  is  crowded  out  of 


226  THE     IRON     MAN 

his  toil.  For  God  is  the  essence  of  freedom;  He  alone 
has  the  freedom  of  omnipotence;  and  when  work  is 
mechanized  to  the  point  where  outside,  uncharted 
forces  cannot  affect  production,  God  is  reduced  from 
a  partner  to  an  onlooker. 

I  refuse  to  add  another  unsatisfactory  definition  of 
God  to  all  those  on  record.  An  extensive  theological 
library  (inherited)  shows  me  the  folly  of  that.  Let 
who  will  declare  God  a  person  or  a  force.  I  have  never 
had  a  mystical  experience  of  God,  and  find  myself  un- 
able to  subscribe  with  a  whole  heart  to  any  creed  I 
have  ever  read.  I  know  not  whether  God  is  one,  or 
three,  or  a  thousand.  The  Invisible  King  of  Mr.  Wells 
is  as  unsatisfactory  to  me,  and  no  more  so,  than  the 
Jahveh  of  Joshua.  It  is  not  my  province  to  find  a 
Deity  acceptable  to  the  modern  world;  but  rather  to 
point,  unwillingly  and  from  laggard  conviction  of 
necessity,  that  it  is  high  time  for  us  moderns  to  quit 
considering  our  systems  and  machines  as  all-impor- 
tant, and  to  search  for  God  with  what  strength  is  left 
in  us. 

There  was  a  time  when  I  subscribed  to  the  anthro- 
pomorphic conception  of  God:  that  man  made  God 
in  his  own  image  —  an  extended  and  glorified  image, 
to  be  sure,  but  essentially  man,  multiplied  in  goodly 
personal  power  and  shorn  of  the  baser  traits  of  hu- 
manity. For  all  I  know  to  the  contrary,  that  may  be 
the  case;  but  if  Man  did  invent  God,  I  hold  that  in- 
vention to  be  the  masterpiece  of  human  wisdom,  far 
outstripping  in  usefulness  any  and  all  subsequent 
innovations  of  the  "brave,  little  biped."  That,  if  so, 


THE     IRON     MAN  227 

was  the  first  step  in  progress  from  beasthood  toward 
manhood,  the  essential  without  which  self-restraint 
and  social  order  are  impossible.  With  God,  however 
discovered,  in  the  saddle,  Man  was  ready  to  march, 
as  he  could  not  otherwise  have  marched,  toward  the 
command  of  all  things  terrestial.  Assuredly  he  could 
not  have  come  so  far  without  God ;  and  unless  he  keeps 
his  faith  in  God,  this  present  quagmire  is  a  turning-point 
in  the  journey,  and  "  Retreat "  the  order  of  to-morrow. 

I  have  come  to  this  conclusion  from  inner  com- 
pulsion, after  viewing  the  evidence,  and  against  the 
protests  of  some,  more  sage  than  I,  who  hold  that 
Darwin  and  his  successors  ruined  the  concept  of  God 
past  repair.  If  so,  then  the  scientists  planted  the 
seeds  of  ruin  in  our  industrial  civilization  even  as  they 
built  it,  because  industrial  civilization  cannot  hold 
together  unless  the  idea  of  God  as  Universal  Father 
and  All-wise  Judge  increasingly  restrains  the  follies, 
greeds,  hates,  and  ambitions  of  men. 

There  is  pathos  in  a  trade-paper  tale  out  of  India, 
wherein  Hindu  steel-workers  are  described  as  decking 
their  machines  with  garlands  on  holy  days,  as  once  they 
decked  their  bullocks  and  their  ploughs.  We  smile  in- 
dulgently;  what  pleasant,  simple  children,  so  likely  to 
be  cheated  in  a  game  in  which  we  are  grown  stale !  And 
yet  that  naive  reaction  to  machine-power  is  no  more 
absurd,  and  rather  more  picturesque,  than  our  organ- 
ized efforts  to  bring  God  into  machine-shops  through 
welfare  work.  And  its  very  spontaneity  is  in  refreshing 
contrast  to  our  penchant  for  the  mechanized,  de- 
partmentalized activities  of  the  modern  institutional 


228  THEIRONMAN 

church,  fit  refuge  for  standardized  souls,  and  as  near 
like  a  factory  as  ever  a  church  can  be. 

The  masses  remain  incurably  mystic,  but  to-day 
their  mysticism  moves  them  less  toward  organized  re- 
ligion than  toward  social  revolt.  How  much  of  the 
machine-tender's  unrest  is  due  to  the  feeling  that  he 
is  forsaken  of  God  in  his  toil,  no  one  can  say.  He  is 
sick,  I  think,  of  working  for  bread  alone.  The  success 
of  the  A.  Nash  Company,  with  its  Golden-Rule  policy, 
indicates  that  men  relish  being  considered,  not  as 
numbers  in  a  card-index  and  as  companions  of  ma- 
chines, but  as  members  of  a  fellowship  founded  upon 
common  consent  of  God  and  common  descent  from 
God.  Kneeling  together,  praying  together,  and  sing- 
ing hymns  together  may  be  all  very  well,  but,  if  no 
religion  can  be  injected  into  working  together,  then 
God  has  been  crowded  out  of  the  most  influential 
phase  of  modern  life,  and  the  confident  continuance  of 
the  wages-system  awaits  His  return. 

Assuredly  many  of  us  are  daily  doing  God's  work,  as 
the  statesmen  tried  to  do  it  at  Versailles,  without 
daring  to  assert  their  conviction  of  its  acceptability  to 
Him.  We  are  grown  strangely  reticent  on  religion, 
and  strangely  immodest  on  personalities.  We  are  for- 
ever chattering  about  the  big  men  in  industry;  but  if 
one  of  these  forceful  beings  should  say,  "This  I  do  to 
the  glory  of  God,"  we  should  hold  him  a  blasphemer. 
Yet  such  thoughts,  no  doubt,  inspire  men  to  unselfish 
action  even  yet;  and,  if  avowed,  might  be  understood 
by  those  who  cannot  stomach,  at  this  pass,  pretensions 
to  moral  and  ethical  elevation. 


THE     IRON     MAN  (229 

The  religion  of  toil,  if  one  may  dare  a  division  of 
religion  for  the  sake  of  emphasis,  is  neither  ecstatic 
on  the  one  hand  nor  formalized  on  the  other,  but 
quiet,  unpretentious,  and  vocal  through  deeds  rather 
than  words.  And  where  breaking  into  words,  seldom 
do  the  words  convey  a  tithe  of  the  full  meaning  behind 
them.  On  certain  massive  stone  arches,  at  the  borders 
of  two  industrial  cities  in  New  York  State,  are  graven 
these  words:  "The  Square  Deal  Towns:  Erected  by 
the  employees  of  the  Endicott- Johnson  Company." 
They  bear  the  likenesses  in  bas-relief  of  two  men.  I  should 
like  to  know  more  of  those  men,  and  get  at  the  reasons 
why  they  inspired  those  unique  community  memorials. 
If  all  is  as  it  appears,  then  those  arches  seem  to  me  more 
significant  than  the  Arc  de  Triomphe,  or  any  other 
marker  of  victory.  Indeed,  they  evidence  a  more 
unusual  victory,  —  the  triumph  of  mutual  service  in 
toil,  —  and  are  as  honorable  memorials  to  the  thou- 
sands who  erected  them  as  to  the  two  commemorated 
thereon.  The  builders  might  have  added,  "To  the 
Glory  of  God"  ;  but  there  is  no  need:  the  phrase 
speaks  in  the  work;  for  where  men  work  in  faith  and 
confidence  one  for  another,  there  God  manifests  Him- 
self unceasingly.  And  until  that  faith  and  confidence 
return,  God  shall  be  sore  needed  in  industry. 

Politics,  economics,  and  science  —  these  sustain 
and  order  life;  but  the  life  they  offer  is  too  barren  of 
spiritual  satisfaction  to  give  joy  in  and  of  itself;  too 
harsh  to  hold  the  loyalty  of  those  who  fail  to  win  its 
high  prizes  of  cash  and  place;  and  too  complicated  for 
ordinary  folk  to  reduce  to  inner  harmony,  unless  they 


23o  THE     IRON     MAN 

take  much  on  faith  and  have  in  God  a  unifying  concept. 

The  duel  is  on  between  that  culture  of  the  active 
soul  which  democracy  offers  as  a  final  value  of  life 
and  a  mechanization  of  mundane  affairs  so  complete 
that  democracy  as  we  know  it  must  perish  under  its 
sway.  Our  successors  shall  not  come  out  of  this  con- 
flict spiritually  victorious  unless  they  are  sustained 
by  faith  that  their  labors  are  acceptable  of  God. 

Further  evolution  of  automatic  machinery  may 
cancel  from  the  equation  difficulties  which  now  seem 
important.  Fatigue  may  depart  from  industrial  toil 
as  machines  become  more  and  more  perfect.  But 
even  so,  an  adjustment  between  human  interests 
and  machine  interests  must  still  be  made  somewhere 
—  if  not  in  the  shop,  then  in  the  streets,  homes  and 
legislatures.  As  machines  come  to  do  more  of  the 
necessary  work  of  the  world,  the  right  use  of  leisure 
as  an  antidote  for  sloth  and  luxuriousness  and  as  a 
means  of  mental,  moral,  and  physical  health  becomes 
essential  to  national  vigor.  Likewise,  as  human  beings 
become  increasingly  dependent  upon  machines  for  the 
means  of  life,  who  shall  own  those  machines  and  how 
shall  their  produce  be  divided  ?  In  escaping  from  one 
sort  of  travail,  man  runs  straightway  into  another. 

Consequently,  whatever  the  trend  and  pace  of  evo- 
lution, Man  will  have  need  of  Divine  assistance 
toward  wisdom  and  patience  in  order  to  emerge 
strong  and  serene  from  the  struggle  with  the  Iron 
Man. 

Seaver-Howland  Press,  Boston. 


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